At road traffic offices, fees are higher than costs
Published: Thursday, Nov 2nd 2023, 10:40
Updated At: Friday, Nov 3rd 2023, 00:54
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In the road traffic offices, the fees for services continue to be higher than the costs. This is shown by the latest survey of the Federal Finance Administration (FFA) for the year 2021.
On average in the country, the revenues of the road traffic offices are 119 percent above the limit at which revenues and costs balance out, as the FFA wrote on Thursday. The index takes into account the issuing of driver and vehicle licenses as well as motor vehicle inspections.
Possible disproportion
In eight cantons, the index value is above the national average. It is highest in the cantons of Ticino, Geneva and Appenzell Innerrhoden. Even if the limit of 100 percent cannot be regarded as absolute: excessively high values could be interpreted as an indication of a possible disproportion, the FFA wrote.
By contrast, the cantons of Zug, Jura and Uri, among others, are below the 100 percent mark. However, according to the FFA, this does not mean that the fees in these cantons are too low and should be increased.
The higher fees than costs had also been noted by the SFA in earlier years. During the Covid 19 pandemic, the revenues of the road traffic offices were lower because fewer vehicles were temporarily presented.
In 2021, three-plus quarters (78 percent) of the costs of public services overall were financed by fees, the FFA found. After the pandemic, fee revenues had risen again overall, not only in the road traffic offices but also in the general legal system.
Large differences between the cantons
In no canton is the total fee income higher than the costs. However, the differences are considerable. Cantons with a low proportion of fees - Uri and Geneva, for example - either finance services with taxpayers' money or have outsourced services to companies that do not belong to the state sector.
The annually published indicator of the FFA contains tasks with the highest fee income. These were the areas of road traffic and shipping office, general legal affairs, water supply and wastewater disposal, and waste management.
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