The caretaker cabinet has secured a postponement of the higher toll charges

The government postponed indefinitely the increase in tolls that was supposed to take effect on March 1, 2026. The news came as a surprise from acting regional minister Angelina Boneva during a briefing at the Council of Ministers. Due to a misunderstanding of a journalist’s question, Boneva revealed that the government had decided not to introduce the new carbon emission-linked tariffs in order to avoid social tension around the national holiday on March 3.

While answering questions about the price of water Minister Boneva was under the impression that she was being asked about the toll system.

No, I asked in Brussels, the deadline for the directive is March 24. So I spoke with the head of the toll system and he agreed that there is no need to worry Bulgarians now on March 3 so the situation is calm,” said the minister.

Thus the planned reform, which was supposed to bring an additional €109 million per year into the toll system, has been postponed.

We would like to remind you that the plan was that the toll would no longer be a fixed amount but a sum of four components, the main one being carbon emissions. This change would have had the most serious impact on old trucks and buses.

The changes to the toll rates were posted for public discussion at the end of January this year. The introduction of the environmental component is a consequence of a European directive. The National Assembly adopted these changes with amendments to the Road Act last year.

The postponement of the new charging model will most likely create a hole in the MRDPW’s estimates for this year. According to the documentation from the public consultation, for the remaining 10 months of 2026, the state was supposed to collect €91 million more from transit and domestic heavy goods transport.

Translated with DeepL.