Ljubljana - E-tolling system for cars will not be fully up and running by December as planned. Only annual electronic vignettes for cars and semi-annual e-vignettes for motorbikes will be available from December, while weekly and monthly e-vignettes will not be available until February 2022.

The delay follows from amendments to the e-tolling act that have been published on the government website as matters under consideration and still need to get endorsed by the cabinet.

The delay is attributed fully to the review of complaints filed by unselected bidders challenging the selection of Slovakia's Skytoll as the contractor.

DARS, the state-run motorway company, has told the STA they were doing everything in their power in cooperation with Skytoll to cut short certain time frames.

Skytoll was picked over Slovenian telecoms company Iskratel, which submitted a joint offer with Hungary's ARH Informatics, and Slovenian IT firm Marand, which had a joint bid with the state-owned postal and telecoms operators and Austrian firm Kapsch.

Skytoll's offer, at EUR 15.7 million excluding VAT, was slightly higher than Iskratel's and under half the offer submitted by the Marand consortium. The rival bids were deemed inadmissible.

DARS said the three-month delay was "fully due to unwarranted appeals by the unselected bidders". Nonetheless, they "want to enable users of our motorways and expressways to buy electronic vignettes as planned from 1 December".

Drivers will be able to buy e-vignettes online or at physical sales points such as service stations or various stores. The annual e-vignette will be valid for one year from the selected date, DARS said.