What is the amount of the sanctions?

Sanctions for use of the paid road network without payment of a charge vary from BGN 300 per car to BGN 3,000 for heavy road vehicles, as follows:

• A driver who drives a car on the paid road network for which he/she owes but has not paid a vignette charge shall be punished with a fine of BGN 300;
• A driver who drives a heavy vehicle on the paid road network for which the relevant obligations for establishing the distance travelled are not fulfilled or a charge (route pass or toll) have not been paid shall be punished with a fine of BGN 1,800;
• An owner of a heavy vehicle for which a road charge has not been paid in full or in part, including as a result of false declarations (technical characteristics of the road or the road section, the distance travelled, the category of the road vehicle and the number of axles, its ecological characteristics), shall be punished with a fine of BGN 2500. The fine shall be imposed on the registered user of the vehicle, if any. If the owner or the registered user is a legal entity, a penalty payment of BGN 2,500 is imposed;
• When using the paid road network without a purchased vignette, when at the same time the registration number of a car is unreadable or covered in any way, the driver shall be punished with a fine of BGN 500;
• When heavy vehicles are using the paid road network without paying a road charge and at the same time the registration number is unreadable or covered in any way, the fine amounts to BGN 3,000.

Since 2019, a compensatory charge has also been introduced, which, when a violation is detected, enables the voluntary payment of the use of the road network without drawing up a statement of establishment of an administrative violation and imposing a higher penalty. 

The compensation charge for passenger cars amounts to BGN 70. 

Decree No. 24 of 20 February 2020 of the Council of Ministers amending the Tariff for charges charged by the Road Infrastructure Agency regulates the following compensatory charges for road vehicles with a total technically permissible maximum mass over 3.5 tonnes:

If the driver refuses to pay a compensatory charge when checked on the road, a statement of establishment of an administrative violation shall be drawn up and served to him/her. After serving the statement, the offender again has the possibility to pay a compensatory charge by a bank transfer within 14 days, indicating in the payment order the number of the statement of establishment of an administrative violation.  Thus, the offender is exempted from administrative criminal liability for the specific infringement and will not be fined a larger amount. In the event that the driver does not pay a compensatory charge within 14 days, he/she is issued a penal decree imposing a fine - for passenger cars it is BGN 300 and for road vehicles with a total technically permissible maximum mass over 3.5 tons - BGN 1800.

A driver who has refused to pay a compensatory charge and has been issued with a statement of an administrative violation in order to continue his journey must pay:

• for a car - the value of the weekend vignette of BGN 10
• for vehicles weighing over 3.5 tonnes, he/she must pay a maximum toll and this is the only way he/she can continue his/her journey. The payment is only possible by a card. 

Maximum toll, according to Art. 29 of the Tariff for the charges to be collected for the passage and use of the Republican road network, adopted by Decree No.370 of 20 December 2019 of the Council of Ministers is:

National Toll Administration account for payment of sanctions by a bank transfer:

IBAN: BG50BNBG96613100165801

BIC: BNBGBGSD

BNB Bank

Account holder: Road Infrastructure Agency