The State Duma plans to provide school buses with preferences on toll roads

The State Duma adopted in the first reading amendments to the law “On Roads and Road Activities”, exempting school buses and vehicles involved in “organized transportation of groups of children” (on an excursion, to a camp, etc.) from toll roads. The bill was submitted to the parliament by a group of parliamentarians from United Russia (Andrey Turchak, Andrey Kutepov, Andrey Isaev, etc.). According to the explanatory note, the document will reduce “the financial burden on organizations that transport children for educational and other developmental purposes, the vast majority of which are funded from the federal, regional and local budgets.” Today, we recall, public transport, vehicles of operational services with special signals (fire brigade, ambulance), mail have the right to free travel.

The government supported the amendments in its opinion, pointing out that by the second reading it is necessary to provide for a mechanism to compensate for “lost income” as a result of free bus travel for companies participating in concession agreements, PPP agreements (under which roads are built and operated), without resorting to “Expenditures of budgets of the budgetary system of the Russian Federation”. “Additional elaboration requires the implementation of the draft norm in practice in terms of the possibility of identifying school buses and buses carrying out organized transportation of children for the purpose of exempting from tolls on toll roads,” the government believes. The amendments must be prepared by January 11, 2023.

Ivan Tyazhlov