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The Minister of Internal Affairs Ken-Marti Vaher replied to the interpellation concerning the fees for the waiting area at road border points (No 253), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Deniss Boroditš, Inara Luigas, Kalle Laanet, Lembit Kaljuvee and Rainer Vakra on 6 December, reported The Riigikogu Press Service.
The interpellators drew the Minister’s attention to the fact that, since the implementation of the electronic border crossing queue, there is often a situation at the border where there is no queue and, consequently, the vehicles have no need to use the waiting area. The vehicles have the opportunity to cross the Estonian-Russian border directly, without passing the waiting area. However, when crossing the border, the drivers who have got a reservation and have paid for it are sent back to the waiting area where they have to pay the fee for the waiting area. The interpellators find that no fee for the waiting area should be charged from passengers in such cases.
Vaher explained that the border crossing queue system which had been launched on 1 August 2011 consists of the database for maintaining the queue and the waiting area. That had solved the problem of border crossing queues.
In the Minister’s words, the service of the use of the waiting area can essentially be divided into two parts: the services of the management of the border crossing queue and consumer services at the waiting area. In the opinion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the services of the management of the border crossing queue include maintaining of the border crossing queue, parking of a vehicle at the waiting area during the time of waiting in the border crossing queue, heading the vehicle towards the border checkpoint and reception of the vehicle at the road border point.
Consumer services cover, for example, access to the Internet, lighting and surveillance, including video surveillance, of the waiting area, and availability of the service of disposal of rubbish and usage of lavatories. According to Vaher’s justifications, in terms of price formation, the service of the use of the waiting area is a single integral service because it is not reasonable to keep records on every part of the service as provided for in the Act and to charge separate bills for them.
“This would also make the service significantly more expensive, and that in regard to every part of the service. Therefore, our position is that charging a fee for the use of the waiting area is justified regardless of the specific proportions of the services of the organisation of the queue and consumer services at the waiting area,” Vaher said.
The Minister of Internal Affairs also replied to the interpellation concerning crimes of corruption (No 258), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Kalev Kallo, Mihhail Stalnuhhin and Valeri Korb on 18 December.
During the open microphone, Inara Luigas, Kadri Simson, Kalev Kallo, Mihhail Stalnuhhin andViktor Vassiljev took the floor.