ZAGREB, 25 Nov 2021 - State secretary at the Ministry of Transport, Tomislav Mihotić, confirmed in parliament on Thursday that electronic toll collection (ETC) would be introduced throughout Croatia, and the intention is for the system to be unified in the entire European Union.

In the end, there will be no toll booths on the motorway, Mihotić said in response to Marina Opačak Bilić's (Social Democrats Group) question of whether modernizing the ETC was considered, like in some other countries.

Presenting the amendments to the roads act, the state secretary said their goal was to ensure free passage through all places which today had toll booths.

This means that vehicles will be registered in another way, by recording the licence plate of a vehicle, and then the ETC will automatically collect money, there will be no traffic jams or additional pollution that occurs at these locations, he said.

He added that the funds for introducing the ETC, HRK 500 million (€67 million), had been provided in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPOO).

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August the 18th, 2021 - Croatian toll fees have felt the positive effects of the excellent summer tourist season so far, with a third more in such tolls being taken than pandemic-dominated 2020.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, during the last weekend on all motorways under the jurisdiction of the Croatian Motorways (HAC), a turnover of 878.2 thousand vehicles was recorded and Croatian toll fees totalling a massive 49.01 million kuna were collected, which is an increase of 25 and 29 percent when compared to the same period last year, they announced on Monday from HAC.

During the weekend from the 13th to the 15th of August 2021, traffic on 878,191 vehicles and Croatian toll fees in the amount of 49.01 million kuna without VAT included were recorded on all of the country's motorways under the jurisdiction of HAC, the statement said.

When compared to the same weekend last year, when a turnover of 700,173 vehicles was recorded, and Croatian toll fees were collected in the amount of 38 million kuna without VAT, the number of vehicles has increased by a more than encouraging 25 percent and the amount in tolls collected has risen by 29 percent.

The growth in the number of vehicles on the country's motorways and the Croatian toll fees collected as a result of that increased traffic is a reflection of a much better tourist season than last year, when Croatia found itself in the "red" in mid-August on the eve of a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

HAC also made a comparison with the same weekend of the record, pre-pandemic tourist year of 2019, when 919,666 vehicles were on Croatian motorways under the jurisdiction of HAC, and the total toll fees collected amounted to a massive 52.1 million kuna without the inclusion of VAT.

As such, last weekend, vehicle traffic was lower by 4.5 percent, and the amount of tolls collected was lower by just six percent when compared to the same weekend in 2019.

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