During the public consultations on the bill to amend the Public Utilities Services Act, the Tax Code and the Contravention Code, he recalled that the parking fee is a single fee.
“It is uniform for the entire area and is set for a period of one year. Our initiative to relieve traffic was the segmentation for the city of Chisinau, but this does not mean that any other locality – for example, Falesti, Riscani, Balti – where the local Council decides not to introduce segmentation will be obliged to do so, they do not have such a need. I believe that it is premature to exclude this levy,” said Popović.
He argues his position with the results of a public opinion poll, conducted also in social networks.
“We have conducted a round of consultations to study the opinion of citizens, including polls in social networks and social analytical research. Citizens were in favor of parking lots being paid for. Opinions may vary, but the majority supported this approach. We know that in European countries this process, which was initially perceived somewhat negatively, is ultimately viewed positively by citizens and brings ultimate benefits. That is the concept behind any regulation as well as the law that is intended to support those regulations in each locality. Obviously this will benefit local governments, but the basic concept is to relieve traffic congestion and bring order to everything related to urban mobility.”
Regulatory attempt
Recall that the bill registered in Parliament introduces into the legislation the concept of “provision of public parking”, that is, the activity of organizing and managing parking in settlements. At the same time, the management of public parking lots will be officially included in the list of municipal services.
At the same time, the authors of the bill propose to exclude local parking fees from the Tax Code, abolishing a number of provisions regulating them.
“The presence of a local parking fee in the Tax Code creates unnecessary ambiguity in the application of the policy of monetization of public parking lots. After all, public parking, according to international practice, is a public service provided to citizens, for which, as a rule, certain tariffs are charged, while local fees are mandatory payments to the local budget related to specific types of activities,” the document says.
In addition, the draft introduces sanctions for violation of parking rules at public parking lots organized in accordance with local regulations.
MP Alexander Trubka, co-author of the bill, has identified three types of violations: parking without paying the tariff, even for the minimum period of time established by local regulations; parking in two or more spaces, which actually blocks more space than is provided for one car; exceeding the time for which parking was paid for.
According to civil activist Vitaly Vozny, who also took part in the consultations, in reality the only point of these amendments to the legislation “is to introduce fines.” Another important point, in his opinion, is an informational occasion, i.e. an opportunity to criticize the Chisinau City Hall and to show that the central authorities allegedly did everything possible, while the local ones failed to achieve results.
