On the last day of 2020, the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary published in the Official Gazette a Decree by which all companies holding an international road freight carrier’s license must register in the BIREG system.
The BIREG system aims to protect the Hungarian market by the real-time control of all mandatory transport documents. The measure was to apply not only to foreign carriers, but also to Hungarian carriers.
Three weeks after the initial publication, on 27 January 2021, the Decree amending Government Regulation no. 261/2011 was published in the Official Gazette of Hungary. This last Decree stipulates the obligation to register in BIREG:
- The transport operations carried out based on an ECMT authorisation (also known as CEMT) or a bilateral authorisation (as the case may be);
- The cabotage operations on the territory of Hungary.
The TRANSIT operations on the territory of Hungary with vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tons must NOT be declared in BIREG.
With the publication of these regulations at the end of 2020, the fines were also set for those who fail to register or for those who make an incorrect/incomplete registration, as follows:
- from 1 February 2021, the lack of registration in the BIREG system shall be treated as an unauthorised transport
- the lack of a registration on the BIREG platform is fined with HUF 800,000 (around EUR 2,250),
- the incorrect/incomplete registration is fined with HUF 300,000 (around EUR 830).
Taking into account that the document amending the initial regulations takes effect 8 days after its publication in the Official Gazette, and the Decree published in December 2020 lays down the application of the sanctions starting with 01 February 2021, there will be 4 days in which intra-Community carriers can be sanctioned if they are verified and have not declared their transport in BIREG.
The registration in BIREG must be made before the transport action, namely until the end of the loading/unloading operation and must include the identification data of the driver conducting the transport.
EKAER or BIREG?
The two systems have nothing to do with each other. EKAER was set up to control the goods and to prevent VAT fraud, BIREG controls the carriers and wants to filter out unauthorised foreigners.
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