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avoid increasing the burden on the people

in recent years, the trend of canceling tolls on non-highway roads has become increasingly obvious. many local governments have ended the toll collection period ahead of schedule, and even spent money to buy back highways to enable local vehicles to pass for free. however, this trend seems to be changing. recently, some places have begun to restore or build new national highway toll stations, which has attracted widespread attention from all walks of life.

on august 26, the shandong provincial government website released the "approval of the shandong provincial people's government on the establishment of a toll station on the jinan yellow river bridge", agreeing to the establishment of a toll station on the jinan yellow river bridge with a toll collection period of up to 25 years. the specific charging standards and start and end times will be announced and implemented separately after being approved by the relevant departments of the provincial government.

the jinan yellow river bridge under construction. image source: jinan urban construction group wechat official account

it is understood that the jinan yellow river bridge is a new bridge under construction with a total length of 7.748 kilometers, of which the main line bridge is 6.87 kilometers long, with a total investment of 7.893 billion yuan.

at the same time, the jinan yellow river bridge is also a bridge on national highway 104. national highway 104 starts at yongdingmen bridge in dongcheng district, beijing, and ends at dongxing village, pingtan county, fuzhou city, fujian province. the entire journey is 2,606 kilometers, passing through eight provinces including beijing, tianjin, hebei, shandong, jiangsu, anhui, zhejiang, and fujian.

earlier, jilin province and hubei province also started charging tolls on national highway bridges and first-class highways respectively. these cases show that the resumption of toll collection on national highways is not an isolated case.

faced with this change, the public can't help but wonder: are national highway tolls going to be restored?

toll collection resumes on multiple roads

in the minds of many people, ordinary roads have always been regarded as public products with certain public welfare characteristics. but in fact, the history of canceling tolls on ordinary roads is not very long.

in 2009, china began to implement the "fuel tax reform", that is, to replace road maintenance fees and other transportation charges with consumption tax on refined oil. according to the "notice of the state council on the implementation of refined oil price and tax reform", from january 1, 2009, six charges including road maintenance fees, waterway maintenance fees, highway transportation management fees, highway passenger and freight surcharges, waterway transportation management fees, and waterway passenger and freight surcharges will be abolished.

since then, local governments have gradually and orderly cancelled the tolls on secondary roads used to repay government loans, and have repurchased commercial roads in a timely manner based on their own financial conditions to provide free services to the public. ordinary roads have gradually been regarded as a public product, and the cancellation of tolls on non-highways has become a trend, and toll stations in some places have also been demolished one after another.

according to data from the ministry of transport, as of now, all provinces in the country, except xinjiang, have canceled tolls on secondary roads for government loan repayment, reducing toll roads by 150,500 kilometers and abolishing 2,681 toll stations.

however, this trend appears to be changing in some areas.

li peilin, an associate researcher at the national development and reform commission's institute of land development and regional economy, and others compiled an incomplete statistical table of newly added highway toll stations in recent years. from the chart, it can be seen that since 2021, anhui, shanxi, gansu, hubei, jilin, shaanxi, jiangsu, and shandong have all issued announcements on the opening of national highway toll stations.

image source: compiled by li peilin and others from the national development and reform commission’s institute of land development and regional economy

in october 2023, jiangsu province agreed to start collecting vehicle tolls after the suhuai toll station on national highway 205 was completed and met the conditions for opening to traffic. this decision has sparked heated discussions among the public. according to the "reply of the provincial government on the approval of the collection of vehicle tolls at the suhuai toll station on national highway 205" issued by the jiangsu provincial government, suqian and huai'an will jointly collect tolls, and the collection period will be calculated from the date of the collection of vehicle tolls, and will be evaluated and approved after the toll station has been in operation for two years.

public information shows that national highway 205 is one of the longitudinal lines of my country's road network. it starts from qinhuangdao city, hebei province in the north and ends in shenzhen city, guangdong province in the south. it is 2,976.450 kilometers long and passes through eight provinces, including hebei, tianjin, shandong, jiangsu, anhui, zhejiang, fujian and guangdong.

so, is there any basis for resuming toll collection on national highways?

according to article 3 of the current toll highway management regulations, highway development should focus on non-toll highways and appropriately develop toll highways. this regulation clarifies the dominant position of non-toll highways, while allowing tolls to support highway construction and maintenance under certain circumstances. in addition, article 12 of the toll highway management regulations strictly regulates the setting of toll stations. on the same main line of a non-enclosed toll highway, the distance between adjacent toll stations shall not be less than 50 kilometers.

at the same time, in accordance with article 18 of the toll highway management regulations, toll highways are allowed to be built with two-lane independent bridges with a length of more than 800 meters and four-lane independent bridges with a length of more than 500 meters.

therefore, according to this regulation, the establishment of a toll station on the jinan yellow river bridge complies with relevant regulations.

it is worth noting that since the "regulations on the administration of toll highways" was officially implemented in 2004, it has been revised several times due to the changing environment of toll highway development. at the end of 2018, the ministry of transport publicly solicited opinions on the "regulations on the administration of toll highways (draft amendment)".

on december 21 of the same year, at a press conference held by the ministry of transport, relevant officials stated that the draft revision was to further control the scale of toll roads, improve the basic public service capabilities and levels of the road network, and reduce road and bridge fees. it made it clear that only new expressway toll roads would be built in the future, and no new toll-free first-class roads, second-class roads, independent bridges and tunnels would be built. the existing toll-free first-class roads, second-class roads, independent bridges and tunnels would be gradually and orderly stopped as the toll period expires or the government repurchases them in advance.

it is understood that according to the procedures, after the consultation on the revision of the "toll highway management regulations (draft revised)" ended on january 20, 2019, the ministry of transport, on the basis of studying and absorbing opinions from all parties, further revised and improved the draft revised version and submitted it to the state council.

on may 11, 2024, the general office of the state council issued the "2024 legislative work plan of the state council", and the "toll highway management regulations" were listed as "administrative regulations to be formulated and revised in 2024". many industry insiders believe that the new version of the regulations may be promulgated in the near future, and are full of expectations for the content related to toll roads that may appear in the regulations.

yang xinmiao, deputy director of the institute of transportation studies at tsinghua university, told china newsweek that when the ministry of transport solicited public opinions on the "draft amendment to toll highway management regulations" in 2018, the draft was in line with the economic environment and situation at the time. however, road maintenance requires financial support, and vehicle purchase tax and fuel tax are the two major sources of income for the national transportation department. but in recent years, the growth of these taxes and fees has reached its peak, while the scale of infrastructure maintenance has continued to expand. therefore, from the perspective of local governments, non-highway highway tolls may bring certain fiscal revenue to the local area, thereby alleviating financial pressure.

li peilin also told china newsweek that new energy vehicles are currently developing rapidly. in 2023, china's new energy vehicle sales reached 3 million units. assuming that each vehicle saves about 3,000 yuan in fuel tax each year (fuel consumption is 1,000 liters), this item alone may lead to a reduction of 9 billion yuan in fuel tax revenue.

in february 2024, zhang yuling and others from the highway research institute of the ministry of transport published an article titled "reflections on the highway maintenance period charging system" in the china highway magazine. the article pointed out that the annual maintenance and management funding gap for ordinary highways in the country is currently around 50%, and about 40% of ordinary highways are in a dilemma of "listed for maintenance but no money, and should be repaired but no money", and as the mileage of highways increases, the gap in highway maintenance funds is expected to continue to expand.

liu wenfeng, deputy director of the henan transportation strategic development research institute, told china news weekly that although the country advocates the development direction of toll collection on expressways and free trunk roads, it does not explicitly prohibit toll collection on trunk roads. however, he also pointed out that the toll collection on trunk roads is mainly located in mountainous and hilly areas. the road network in such areas is sparse, and the possibility of bypassing the main toll stations on trunk roads is small. in contrast, the road network in plain areas is dense, and trunk roads do not have the realistic conditions for toll collection.

"although some trunk roads have started to charge tolls, this is still a minority phenomenon and has not reversed the general trend of free roads as the majority of trunk roads," said liu wenfeng.

experts: comprehensive effects should be measured

after some national highways began to implement toll collection, the public also showed great concern about the possible impacts of the toll collection.

yang xinmiao pointed out that ordinary highway tolls will bring a series of far-reaching effects. for individuals, tolls may cause them to choose to detour to avoid fees, thereby reducing the frequency of use of certain roads. for freight transportation, tolls will increase transportation costs and may have a significant impact on the logistics industry. therefore, how to define which places should be charged and which places should not be charged is a major challenge. at the same time, he is also worried that once local governments open the door to charging, the large-scale charging brought about by too many imitations will deviate from the original intention of supporting development as a strong transportation country.

yang xinmiao further stated that some companies in developed regions prefer to set up businesses along free roads in order to reduce transportation costs. if there are only toll roads around, it will be unfavorable for the development of corporate clusters. given that the location of industries is closely related to toll road policies, local governments need to carefully consider the potential impact of toll policies on industrial development.

however, regardless of the impact, the resumption of toll collection on national highways has opened a "gap", and the funding gap for road maintenance is still huge. how to achieve sustainable development has become the current focus of attention.

li peilin pointed out that among the national highways that have resumed toll collection, only national highways 204 and 205 are charging by vehicle type, hubei jingmen national highway is charging by weight, and national highway 109 is charging by the entire distance. the specific toll standards for the remaining nearly ten national highways have not been announced in detail. if toll collection is resumed, a reasonable toll policy must be formulated to ensure transparency of toll collection and avoid excessive tolls that increase the burden on the public.

li peilin suggested that a differentiated pricing strategy should be implemented to scientifically balance income and expenditure. differentiated charges should be implemented based on time periods, vehicle types, road sections, and other factors to encourage travel during non-peak hours to reduce traffic pressure during peak hours. at the same time, vehicle types should be charged based on the degree of damage and danger to the road, and preferential or exemption policies should be provided to specific groups (such as low-income families, students, etc.).

in addition, he also suggested that various measures should be taken to fill the maintenance gap caused by new energy vehicles, such as charging special road maintenance fees directly for new energy vehicles, or installing smart devices to record mileage and charging according to mileage. he also mentioned that the carbon emission trading market can be used to convert the carbon emission reduction benefits of new energy vehicles into economic value.

for residents and businesses that rely on national highways for daily commuting or logistics transportation, the resumption of national highway tolls may increase their economic burden. li peilin believes that the government can introduce subsidy policies and establish special funds to subsidize businesses (such as long-distance transportation companies) and individuals that are greatly affected by national highway tolls. at the same time, tax incentives should be provided to small businesses that rely on national highways for logistics transportation, such as reductions in value-added tax and corporate income tax, and financial institutions should be encouraged to provide such businesses with financial support such as low-interest loans.

highways are closely linked to tourism development. sun xiaorong, an expert member of the china tourism reform and development advisory committee, said in an interview with china news weekly that with the popularity of self-driving tours and the rise of rv camping and outdoor sports, people who travel short and medium distances generally choose self-driving tours. many tourist routes, tourist belts, and tourist corridors are connected by national highways, provincial highways, and county roads, forming a full-course self-driving experience corridor of "road-to-scenery".

sun xiaorong pointed out that in recent years, various regions have been promoting the "integration of transportation and tourism" and building "tourist scenic roads" or "tourist highways" based on national, provincial and county roads with rich ecological and tourism resources. he is worried that once the national, provincial and county roads resume toll collection, it may hinder tourists' travel intentions and the construction of "integration of transportation and tourism", and inhibit the development of the local cultural tourism economy.

at the same time, in recent years, highway tourism has become a new hot spot for cultural tourism consumption. for example, national highway 318, national highway 219, duku highway, weihai qianli mountain and sea self-driving tourism highway, etc. are all popular self-driving routes. "the most beautiful scenery is on the road", and the highway itself has become a tourist experience site, a consumption check-in site and a core attraction.

weihai qianli mountain and sea self-driving tourism highway. photo/tuchong creative

at the same time, with the start of the construction of national cultural parks, various places along the national cultural parks such as the yellow river, the great wall, the long march, and the grand canal are actively building themed scenic roads. for example, the "yellow river no. 1", "great wall no. 1", and "taihang no. 1" scenic roads built in shanxi province have considerable overlap and intersection with national highways, provincial highways, and county roads.

sun xiaorong suggested that for national highways that have already cancelled tolls, the restoration of tolls should be avoided as much as possible to avoid increasing the burden on the people. if it is really necessary to recover investment debts or the local government cannot afford the management and maintenance costs, appropriate fees can be charged according to relevant laws and regulations, but a certain period should be set. for scenic roads, landscape roads, tourist roads, tourist corridors and other sections that implement the "integration of transportation and tourism" development, tolls should be canceled or reduced as much as possible, and the "travel to support roads" strategy should be implemented. through the economic benefits generated by the consumption activities of cultural and tourism consumers, the funds can be fed back and the sustainable development of the local economy can be promoted.

"before introducing relevant policies, local governments should comprehensively weigh the chain and comprehensive effects of the policies," he said.