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Vazny: Road-Toll System Not Collapsing, Food Prices Won't Be Affected
Sunday 10 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
(TV Markiza, January 10, 'Na telo')
The new road-toll system has some minor birth defects, but it is definitely not collapsing, said Transport Minister Lubomir Vazny on TV Markiza's politics discussion show 'Na Telo' on Sunday.
According to Vazny, the introduction of the road-toll system won't increase the price of foods or other products.
"We've ordered two independent studies and I want to stress that the ordinary citizen won't be affected. Should the retailers or the carriers raise prices it will only be a tiny increase. For example a kilogram of poultry could be increased by 0.02 cents or bakery products by 0.03 cents per piece," said Vazny.
Opposition SDKU-DS MP and former transport minister Pavol Prokopovic (2002-2006), also on the show, rejected Vazny's claims. According to him, you don't not have to be an economic expert to understand that if, along with diesel, material depreciation and road tax, road-tolls are added to carriers' expenses, the expenses will go up. "The carrier will then have to factor this into the prices of the goods, that's a basic economic rule. Of course food - and not only that - will become more expensive," he said.
Vazny views the protests of small and medium-sized road carriers as legitimate in terms of lobbying for their own interests. "They're people who work hard and who aren't having an easy life during the crisis," he stated. The minister added that the offer made by Prime Minister Robert Fico, "who is willing to negotiate with the (protesting) hauliers (blocking one of Bratislava's main traffic arteries - Roznavska street - since Thursday) when they end their protest and stop taking Bratislava hostage", is still open.
Prokopovic thinks that the people of Bratislava have been taken hostage by Vazny and Fico. "He (Fico) knew very well that when he set the date for the talks for Monday, the hauliers would remain there (on Roznavska Street). It would have been enough to meet the hauliers for half an hour and everything could have been different," he stated.
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