Highway Law Amendment Draft Proposes Extending Tolls Beyond Expiry on Expressways

The Ministry of Transport has released for public comment the "Draft Amendment to the Highway Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)," which has been open for public feedback since September 7. The public may submit comments until October 7. For the first time, the draft amendment clarifies the mechanism for raising funds for management and maintenance of expressways after their toll collection periods expire. It stipulates that once the tolling period ends, expressways will be managed uniformly by the government and may continue charging tolls based on actual conditions to fund maintenance. According to officials from the Ministry of Transport, the current "fuel tax" is allocated solely for the maintenance of ordinary highways and does not cover expressways. At present, maintenance and management costs for expressways during their tolling periods are covered by toll revenues, but there is no clear funding source after the tolling periods end. In recent years, many early-built expressways—mostly located along critical transportation corridors with high traffic volumes, aging infrastructure, and long service lives—have started reaching the end of their tolling periods, creating a looming funding gap for ongoing maintenance. Without stable financial support, these expressways will struggle to maintain adequate service quality. Moreover, the existing earmarked consumption tax on refined oil products already faces a significant shortfall in covering the maintenance needs of ordinary highways. Raising the tax rate to include expressway maintenance costs would substantially increase fuel prices, unfairly burdening drivers who rarely or never use expressways. To address this, the draft amendment proposes that expressways whose tolling periods have expired be placed under unified government management and financed through a "user-pays" model, charging fees only to those who actually use the roads. This approach aims to uphold the principle of "those who benefit should bear the cost," ensuring service quality without imposing additional burdens on the general public.