Unification of Road Tolls

Beginning with the recently completed Beijing - Shanghai expressway, the Ministry of Communications (MOC) is considering instituting a unified toll pricing and management structure for toll road projects in the PRC. MOC officials expect that an ongoing pilot study of a less complex pricing regime and an electronic toll (E-toll) management system will lead to the replacement of current policies, under which individual provincial communications and price bureaux jointly ratify and govern rates charged by individual toll management companies. Along the Beijing - Shanghai expressway, there are 11 tollgates throughout Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Shanghai. The present toll rates vary so greatly that while a car owner pays .34 yuan per kilometre along the Beijing section of the expressway, the same car owner pays .71 yuan per kilometre along the adjacent Tianjin section of the expressway.

Existing Pricing and Management System