Rund AbdelfatahBy Rund Abdelfatah
PUBLIC motorway tolls throughout Spain have increased by 7.5% and are set to increase even more when IVA (VAT) rises on September 1.
In particular, the AP-7, which runs from Cataluna down the Mediterranean coast, the AP-2 and C-33 will all be affected.
The move comes six months after a controversial new toll was instated on the A22 road between Portugal and Spain, which features an electronic payment system with two methods of payment – easy toll and toll card.
Foreign visitors have the option of paying with a pre-paid card, post-paying at post offices or motorway service stations, or hiring temporary transponders.
Rates vary depending on type of vehicle, distance travelled and whether you have prepaid or not.
But the toll continues to face ardent criticism with usage of the A22 dropping 50% since it came into effect.
Quite clever when you think of it. Spanish Goverment gets the money, the EU paid for the roads
Maybe if they dropped the price more people would use them, the toll road between Fuengirola and Marbella / Esterpona is always empty since the San Pedro tunnel was finished. I made a trip one night from the Airport to Esterpona which was quicker on the n340 and only decided to use that road out of protest of the tolls going up.
The Spanish government need to learn that raising prices or taxes is not always the answer as sometimes it is better to make a small percentage of a lot of money than a large percentage of little. Hold on, that would need common sense and that is something the people who have always run this country lack