Skip to main content

China making plans to boost toll roads

China is considering regulations that would allow road operators to levy a toll on users beyond the current 15 to 30-year limit, according to Bloomberg. The plan would potentially boost an industry that has been plagued by losses as companies struggle to earn enough to cover their debt and operating costs. “The extension of the tolling period can help to woo private investors into highway development,” said Zhu Haibin, chief China economist at JPMorgan Chase in Hong Kong. The plan shows the government’s
August 7, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
China is considering regulations that would allow road operators to levy a toll on users beyond the current 15 to 30-year limit, according to Bloomberg. The plan would potentially boost an industry that has been plagued by losses as companies struggle to earn enough to cover their debt and operating costs.

“The extension of the tolling period can help to woo private investors into highway development,” said Zhu Haibin, chief China economist at JPMorgan Chase in Hong Kong. The plan shows the government’s desire to promote joint government and private-sector projects, he said.

China’s government is trying to avoid incurring massive debt to stimulate the economy, opting instead to inject money into lenders and free up more commercial-bank reserves for lending. Extending toll collection by 10 years would generate $640 billion more revenue, according to Bloomberg’s calculations based on last year’s fee revenue.

Related Content

  • From gas tax to road pricing
    March 18, 2020
    Robert W. Poole of the Reason Foundation thinks that trust is going to be essential if US states are to transition from gas tax to road pricing.
  • Israel aspires to ITS-led future
    May 29, 2013
    Shay Soffer, Chief Scientist with the Israel National Road Safety Authority, talks to Jason Barnes about his country’s current ITS outlook and how he sees this developing in the future. Israel ranks alongside countries such as the US and France in the road safety stakes, with an average 7.1 deaths per billion kilometres driven. But at that point the similarities end, as the country’s overriding issue is pedestrian safety. This is driven by several factors, including being a relatively small country where pe
  • Nortech and Idris vehicle classification technology trialled for tolling in China
    May 18, 2012
    South Africa-headquartered Nortech International, in conjunction with Beijing Navigator Technologies, has announced the conclusion of a successful trial of high accuracy vehicle classification for tolling on the Hebei Shi-huang Expressway in Hebei Province of China.
  • New ITF Projections for urban mobility in China, India, Latin America
    December 19, 2014
    Transport in the urban centres of emerging economies is becoming a major battleground for combating climate change. Projections presented by ITF Economist Aimée Aguilar Jaber during the COP 20 climate change negotiations in Lima, Peru indicate that big cities in China, India and Latin America with over 500,000 inhabitants will more than double their share of world passenger transport emissions by 2050 to 20 per cent, from nine per cent in 2010, if current urban transport policies remain unchanged. 38 pe