A new bill which is shortly to be put up for public discussion will allow the ministry of Economy and Finance to implement both stricter checks and bigger penalties for cars which are uninsured or have not been tested at a Vehicle Inspection Centre (KTEO), or for which the road tax has not been paid on time. It is estimated that there are around 500,000 uninsured vehicles on Greece’s roads, and the bill will allow for more frequent checks to be made and to identify them through cross-checking data from different government sources.
The first time that the AADE conducted a cross-check of data to identify uninsured vehicles, in June 2017, the number of insured vehicles subsequently increased by 510,000 compared with the previous year, bringing the total number of insured vehicles in the country to 6.26 million for the first time. In the 5-year period 2018-2022, the Traffic Police imposed fines of over €21.6 million on on more than 100,000 vehicle owners. The new scale of fines is in accordance with two EU regulations passed by the European Parliament and the European Council in 2021 and 2022.
Provisions of the bill
The bill introduces a new system of electronic checks using various government databases for the identification of:
– uninsured vehicles
– vehicles which have not passed the KTEO inspection
– vehicles whose owners have not paid road and vehicle transfer taxes on time.
The checks will take place on a 6-monthly basis and will consolidate data from the AADE, the ministries of Infrastructure and Transport, Citizen Protection, Foreign Affairs, and Immigration and Asylum, as well as the Union of Insurance Companies, the Auxiliary Insurance Fund register (which provides funds for uninsured vehicle accidents), the Alternative Management of Vehicles Fund (which manages the national vehicle recycling scheme) and TAXISnet.
Scale of fines
The scale of fines imposed on the registered vehicle owner in the case of a contravention is as follows:
For uninsured vehicles:
– €1,000 for buses and public service vehicles
– €500 for passenger and other vehicles of all kinds
– €250 for motorcycles.
For untested vehicles
If the vehicle is identified as not having passed the periodic KTEO test, vehicle owners will be fined €150 in the first instance, and if the contravention is discovered during a Traffic Police check, the fine will increase to €400.
For late payment of road tax:
If the end-of-year deadline for payment of road tax is missed, the amount payable will be increased as follows:
– an additional 25 per cent of the tax if it is paid by the end of January in the year for which the tax applies
– an additional 50 per cent if it is paid by the end of February
– an additional 100 per cent if it is paid after the end of February.
In each case the fine must not be less than €30.00
The owner has the right to challenge a fine within 5 working days of its imposition, and the challenge will be investigated within 30 working days. It should be noted that, following the discovery of a contravention, a new electronic check will be carried out within 3 months of the imposition of the fine. If it is discovered that the owner has again failed to comply, apart from the fine being imposed, the vehicle’s registration certificate will be suspended and its number plates removed. They will only be reinstated on production by the owner of a current insurance contract, a valid test certificate or a confirmation of payment of the road tax as appropriate, as well as a receipt for payment of the fine.
Arrangements for the immobilisation of vehicles or their removal from the Register
Vehicles which have not been insured, have not passed the KTEO test and for which no road tax has been paid for the past 7 years are placed in temporary immobilisation. Subsequently the owners are notified that they must either proceed with the definitive immobilisation of the vehicles and their removal from the Register, or declare them inactive so long as they take the necessary steps to restore them to circulation.
In the case that a vehicle which has been definitively immobilised and removed from the Register is found to be in use, the owner will have to pay a fine of €10,000 as well as the road tax for the year in which it is identified. In addition, if a vehicle which has been declared temporarily immobilised is found parked in a different place to that which was specified in the declaration, the immobilisation is annulled and a fine of €10,000 is imposed by the AADE, in addition to the road tax and the fine for non-payment of the latter.
It should be noted that the check is carried out either through electronic cross-checking by the AADE, drawing on data from motorway concessionaires, or by the individual use of a mobile device for scanning number plates. Finally, if the contravention is repeated within a 5-year period then the fine is tripled and the vehicle owner’s driving licence is suspended for 3 years.
The process of cancelling the vehicle of a deceased person is to be made easier. If it is to be destroyed and recycled, the cancellation can be done without the vehicle being transferred to the heirs.
(Haniotika Nea, 10/05/24, Ministry of Economy and Finance press release)
Support from KTEOs
As reported on Economista.gr, the Panhellenic Association of Private KTEOs has welcomed the government’s initiative, saying that the unification of different databases is a historic moment for the country as it could cure the “pathogens” of 40 years of uninsured, untested and untaxed motor vehicles. Hitherto the work of checking vehicles has been entirely delegated to the Traffic Police through roadside checks, whereas now it can be carried out centrally by digital means.
The systematic imposition of administrative and financial penalties is a very important development, they say, since it is expected to educate drivers’ perceptions as to the correct use and circulation of their vehicles, with the positive results this implies for the road safety of everyone (drivers, passengers, pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists) and the protection of the environment from excessive emissions.
The Association estimates that some 2.8 million vehicles have not been systematically tested over the past 17 years while around 6.5 million vehicles do not have the required Exhaust Control Card [which needs to be renewed annually]. This situation represents a “time-bomb”on Greek roads, principally for the drivers who have no way of telling if their vehicle is safe and non-polluting.
A familiar phenomenon
According to official EU figures, in 2021 Greece had the highest rate of uninsured cars in the EU with 8.2 per cent, followed by Ireland with 7.8 per cent. Figures for Ireland in 2022 suggested that this position had been reversed, so that Greece is now probably in second position, however the level of uninsured cars in the two countries is still four times the EU average of 1.8 per cent.
By way of comparison, again from the EU figures for 2021, in the UK the level of uninsured vehicles was 2.5%, France 2%, Croatia 1.4%, Romania 1.2%, Iceland and Sweden 0.7% and Poland 0.3%, while Germany and Finland had effectively no uninsured vehicles. (Breakingnews.ie)
(The figures represent a relatively high level of compliance for the EU as a whole. According to a report on Financebuzz.com, in the US there are 28 million uninsured drivers, an average of 12.6 per cent. Among individual States, in 2019 Mississippi had the highest uninsured motorist population at 29.4%, followed by Michigan-25.5%, Tennessee-23.7%, New Mexico-21.8%, and Washington State-21.7%.)
The indiscipline of Greek drivers is revealed in other ways too. In a 2022 survey of 12,400 citizens in 11 EU countries, conducted by Ipsos polls on behalf of the French organisation Da Vinci Autoroutes, Greek drivers came out on top of the list as concerns bad behaviour. Almost half of Greeks reported swearing, honking, overtaking on the wrong side of the road or jumping out of their car to yell at another driver. They were also the drivers most likely to tailgate an ‘annoying’ car in front and around a third of drivers admitted to behaviours like speeding, skipping a red light, not slowing down for roadworks and not keeping a safe distance between cars. In addition, Greece topped the list of drivers who use their phones while driving, with 77% admitting to making phone calls while driving and 83% saying they use their smartphone at the wheel. (Cnn.com)
The question as to why Greek drivers have little regard for the rules is no doubt answered by reference to other phenomena, including general tax evasion, vagueness about land ownership, casual rubbish disposal, etc. Financial hardship must play a part, but chiefly it reflects a general distrust of government which persists in many parts of Greek society, no doubt a hangover from four centuries of Turkish occupation. As the latest government moves suggest, it is only with the advent of digital means of monitoring and analysis that such problems can start to be addressed. The penalty is a far higher level of civic supervision than might otherwise be necessary.