On Tuesday, the 11th of February, the Latvian government approved the amendments prepared by the Ministry of Transport for the Road Traffic Safety Directorate’s (CSDD) price list, which provides for increasing the prices of vehicle technical inspection, driving exam, registration plate choice and other services as of the 1st of March 2025.
The price of the CSSD technical inspection for category M1 or passenger cars will increase by EUR 4.70 – from EUR 29.40 to EUR 34.10. However, on average, the price of the service will increase by 8%, since by the end of 2024 the price of the service, including the roadworthiness sticker, was EUR 31.59.
In turn, as of the 1st of January of this year, technical inspection stickers, which cost EUR 2.19, are no longer issued.
Aivars Aksenoks, Chairman of the Board of the CSSD, previously explained that a larger increase in the fee will be for the technical inspection of buses and trucks, which is related to the implementation of the requirements of the European Union (EU) directive in technical inspection stations, as well as the technical inspection of these vehicles takes longer.
The price of the category N3 or truck with a gross weight of more than 12 tons of the technical inspection service increases by 46.1% – from EUR 49.39 to EUR 72.18, while the price of the category M3 or buses with a gross weight of more than five tons of the technical inspection service increases by 41.8% – from EUR 50.19 to EUR 71.18.
Also, CSDD will increase prices for services that are more time-consuming and complex and require highly qualified specialists.
For example, driving tests for category A and B vehicles will increase by 20% – from EUR 29.85 to EUR 35.82.
At the same time, the price will increase 2.4 times for choice numbers with a combination of one or the same numeric symbols. So far, the service fee is EUR 413.22 excluding value added tax (VAT), but from now on it will be EUR 991.73 excluding VAT. The CSDD of these services increases regardless of cost.
Also, the price of the service of registration of electric scooters in person because of the need to determine their individual technical parameters. The price of this service increases by 70% – from EUR 6.1 to EUR 10.37.
Aksenoks previously explained that due to this service, the CSSD worked with quite large minuses last spring, because the CSSD did not expect such a large number of electric scooters – more than 20 000 electric scooters were registered. “Many of these electric scooters did not meet the statutory parameters, so these electric scooters had to be inspected in person. As a result, demand is higher than expected,” he said.
Aksenoks also said that in 2022, the CSDD sold shares in technical inspection companies at a public auction, and this service is now purchased by the directorate in public procurement as an outsourcing service. In 2023, contracts were concluded for technical control at 33 technical inspection stations.
He also emphasized that as a result of public procurement, technical control companies offered a colder price than the existing one, adding that this was due to new technical requirements, an increase in inflation and labour costs, as well as four new stations. Thus, after accrediting all stations in accordance with the new agreements, the CSDD will no longer be able to cover this increase in expenses from this year.
LETA previously reported that in April 2023, as a result of the public procurement conducted by the CSSD, four merchants were identified for the performance of the technical control service and the construction of new technical inspection stations in Riga for light and goods vehicles, as well as for light vehicles in Smiltene and Livani.
The right to provide technical control service for light and goods vehicles in different regions of Latvia was acquired by LLC “Scantest”, LLC “Autests”, LLC “Venttests”, LLC “Auteko & “TUV Latvia – TUV Rheinland Grupa”.
As previously reported, the turnover of the CSDD in 2023 was EUR 60.023 million, which is 13.8% more than the year before, but the profit of the directorate decreased by 39.8% – to EUR 3.953 million.