“I hope that this is yet another part towards achieving our main objective which is to bring an end, once for all, to charging of tolls” on motorways which were previously free to use, Francisco Almeida, chairman of the Commission was quoted as telling the Lusa News Agency this week.
Mr. Almeida added that the decision by courts to declare fines illegal could become generalised across the country in other cases, stating that the current payment method “violates people’s right to privacy as the overhead cameras register movements of drivers who should have the right to free circulation.”
It has meanwhile also emerged that a number of interest groups, lawyers and associations have been holding meetings to agree a joint path of action in which they aim to take on the government head-on in a bid to revoke tolls altogether.
This development comes after a court in Braga last week issued a series of rulings in which all fines levied on motorists for failing to pay electronic motorway tolls were declared null and void.
But tax authorities have since revealed they are considering appealing these decisions, which is no surprise given the amounts reportedly at stake for the state’s depleted coffers.
However, only disputes over values of above 1,250 euros can be taken to a higher court, with those in excess of 30,000 euros being heard by the Supreme Administrative Court.
The main justification for the Braga Court’s ruling in favour of motorists was that the fines were issued to the owners of the offending vehicles, and not necessarily their drivers.
The cameras fitted on overhead gantries on motorways such as the Algarve’s A22 only capture images of the car’s licence plate and not the driver.
As a result, lawyers have argued, and successfully, that the owner of the vehicle is not necessarily the transgressor and he should be allowed to prove his innocence, which has not happened since tax authorities took over the collection of unpaid tolls back in 2012.