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the hasty resumption of national highway toll collection will only increase logistics costs and will not be conducive to economic development and internal circulation in the long run.

written by xiong zhi

are national highway tolls going to be restored?

recently, 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.

picture/internet

jinan yellow river bridge is located on national highway 104. when the news of setting up a toll station came out, it caused a huge uproar.

just as many netizens were expressing surprise, some media exposed a more heartbreaking fact - national highway toll collection is not an isolated case.since 2021, many places including anhui, shanxi, gansu, hubei, jilin, shaanxi, jiangsu, and shandong have issued announcements on the opening of national highway toll stations.

the peak period of highway maintenance is approaching. faced with the increasing pressure on maintenance funds, local finances are in a state of distress. roads that can be built but cannot be maintained are becoming a heavy burden. the question is, is it really appropriate to charge tolls when there is no money?

01

the controversy caused by highway tolls is not an isolated case.

in october last year, jiangsu issued the "approval on the collection of vehicle tolls at suhuai toll station on national highway 205", which also aroused strong doubts. however, this approval document shows that the national highway toll is just a "notification" to everyone, and public opposition cannot change the fact that tolls will be collected.

despite the pressure from public opinion, local governments have to set up toll booths on national highways.the reason is simple: there is no more money left for highway construction and maintenance.

as we all know, the pavement of roads and bridges has a certain service life, generally about 15 years. china has had a large-scale wave of highway infrastructure construction since 2008. as the roads age, the roads built at that time have basically reached the point where they need large-scale maintenance and repair.

where does the money for road maintenance come from?

generally speaking, highways adopt the model of taking out loans to build roads and collecting tolls to repay the loans. the cost of highway maintenance can be borne by vehicle tolls, while the maintenance of non-toll roads, such as national highways and provincial highways, is mainly solved by fiscal funds. the previous source of funds was mainly road maintenance fees.

picture/tuchong creative

in 2009, the fuel tax was reformed and road maintenance fees were abolished. the new tax revenue was allocated to local governments in the form of transfer payments, mainly used for road maintenance.

the problem is that, on the one hand, with the large-scale construction of roads and bridges, the stock of roads that need maintenance is growing, and the demand for funds is increasing; on the other hand, with the increasing popularity of new energy vehicles, the growth of fuel taxes is gradually slowing down, which leads to a continuous widening gap between revenue and expenditure of highway maintenance.

not long ago, zhang yuling and others from the highway research institute of the ministry of transport wrote an article mentioning that the current demand for maintenance funds for ordinary roads across the country is about 600 billion yuan. "even if part of the funds to replace the original highway maintenance fees are all used for highway maintenance, coupled with the current local fiscal investment of about 100 billion yuan, there is still a funding gap of about 300 billion yuan each year."

after the fuel tax reform, the financial power of highway maintenance was transferred to the central government, but the administrative power remained with the local governments.faced with the ever-widening funding gap for highway repair and maintenance, some places will naturally consider charging tolls on national highways to seek additional funds.

in fact, the pressure of maintenance expenditure is not only faced by national highways. for some highways, toll collection and loan repayment are far from covering the construction and maintenance costs. therefore, some highways force "renewal" after the toll collection period expires, and ease the maintenance fund pressure by extending the toll collection period.

according to the time nodes of large-scale highway infrastructure construction, the peak period of periodic maintenance will come next, and greater challenges are yet to come.

02

can we charge tolls on national highways? from a legal perspective, charging tolls on national highways is not without basis.

for example, the toll highway management regulations mention that highway development should focus on non-toll highways and appropriately develop toll highways. there is no explicit provision that all roads other than expressways are prohibited from charging tolls.

the problem is that since the abolition of the road maintenance fee system, national and provincial roads, as basic public facilities, have been free for public use for a long time. if the toll system is restarted at will, it will deviate from the original intention and positioning of public products serving the public.

there are two problems here.

first, there is suspicion of double charging.

there is no such thing as a free lunch. after the road maintenance fee was abolished, the so-called free national highways only meant that direct tolls were waived. for the general public, the cost of highway maintenance and management has always been borne in an indirect way, just through the vehicle purchase tax when buying a car, or the fuel tax when refueling.

if the vehicle purchase tax and fuel tax, which are mainly used for road maintenance, are not abolished, and tolls are imposed on national highways, this will undoubtedly constitute a secondary tax on the people and violate the principles of fairness and rationality.

photo/vcg

second, it will exacerbate market unfairness.

in recent years, the market share of new energy vehicles has continued to increase. new energy vehicles do not need to refuel, and are exempt from the burden of fuel tax. this means that if national highways are charged, for owners of traditional fuel vehicles, they will not only need to bear fuel taxes, but also face national highway tolls, which will constitute a double burden of expenses.

so in summary,toll collection on national highways may be legal, but it may not be reasonable.

local governments have no money for maintenance, so they want to reach into people's pockets, which is a bad example. once the loophole of charging is opened, local governments with financial pressure will follow suit and think of charging for national highways, which will only increase the burden on the people.

more importantly, hastily restarting the national highway toll collection will only increase logistics costs, which will not be conducive to economic development and internal circulation in the long run.

in 2023, my country's total social logistics costs will be 18.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 14.4% of the gross domestic product (gdp), while developed countries generally range from 7% to 8%. given the high logistics costs, national highway tolls should be set with extreme caution.

03

in may this year, a landslide occurred on the meida expressway, resulting in a major tragedy in which 48 people were killed and 30 were injured. the topic of the long-term disrepair of the expressway has also sparked widespread discussion.

over the past few decades, we have been good at concentrating our efforts on major tasks, and have invested heavily in "railway, highway and basic infrastructure", setting off wave after wave of infrastructure construction. our highway and high-speed rail mileage ranks first in the world, bringing great convenience to people's lives and effectively driving investment and economic growth.

but when marveling at the speed of china's infrastructure construction, many people overlook one problem - infrastructure construction is often a long-term investment, and the cost of management and maintenance may even be higher than the initial construction investment, which will cause continuous pressure on the finances.

in recent years, the pace of infrastructure construction in my country has slowed down, the scale of existing infrastructure has become increasingly larger, and the problem of being able to build but not maintain has become increasingly prominent.it is really sad that in some places, high-speed rail stations that were built with great investment ended up being idle and shut down due to low passenger flow.

picture/tuchong creative

this time, the toll collection on national highways in many places has triggered a backlash in public opinion, and the maintenance pressure behind it has attracted attention from the outside world. in fact, in china's highway system, national highways are treated relatively well, and it is the rural roads scattered among the villages that are facing severe maintenance pressure.

data shows that rural roads account for nearly 85% of the total mileage of the national highway network, but under the current model, the construction and maintenance of rural roads are mainly borne by county-level finances.

the county government has no money for maintenance, and the higher level cannot provide adequate subsidies, so these roads are left to rot, posing a huge threat to traffic safety.

faced with the huge gap in road maintenance funds, some places have fallen into difficulties and have to take stopgap measures: some have started to charge tolls on national highways in an attempt to "increase revenue"; some have reduced maintenance investment or postponed maintenance time nodes to find ways to "save money". either way, it will have a negative impact.

emphasizing the objective pressure of highway maintenance does not mean that charging tolls on national highways is reasonable, but it is to remind local governments thatinfrastructure construction must be based on long-term thinking, proceed from local financial resources, and objectively evaluate economic and social benefits. it must not be blindly launched in pursuit of short-term political achievements.

they spend money before they earn it, only focus on construction and not maintenance, and when they run out of money, they add new charging items to cover the fiscal expenditure. such irresponsible impulse to charge fees will only provoke a backlash from public opinion.