Road safety
The Flemish Tax Authorities catch 14 drivers every day who drive around without a valid inspection certificate. The fine? At least 116 euros.
Since January 1 this year, in addition to the police, the Flemish Tax Authorities can also check whether drivers have a valid inspection certificate for their car. In other words: whether they took their car to the inspection on time, where it is tested whether the vehicle complies with the legal rules.
The Flemish Tax Authorities use mobile ANPR cameras for this purpose, which they already used to catch drivers at the side of the road who had not paid their traffic taxes.
The first, cautious checks on non-inspected vehicles immediately yield significant results. In January, “404 observations were made” regarding passenger cars, Flemish Minister of Finance Matthias Diependaele (N-VA) responded to a question from Flemish Member of Parliament Peter Van Rompuy (CD&V).
At the end of January, during a regional day of action, no fewer than 104 non-inspected vehicles were caught in one day. To date, just over 1,000 arrests have taken place, an average of 14 per day, according to figures from the Flemish Tax Authorities.
Red inspection certificate
The fine? An immediate collection of 116 euros, according to the minister. Anyone who does not pay that amount on time will have his or her file forwarded to the public prosecutor’s office. According to Diependaele, the 116 euros only applies to those who are (significantly) late with the inspection of their car.
Because if you drive around with a red inspection certificate – which means that your car has in fact been rejected and is no longer allowed on the track – you will immediately receive a report, which will be sent to the public prosecutor’s office. In that case, expect a significantly higher fine.
Driving around with a car that has not been inspected or has been inspected too late is common practice, according to experts. Roughly 100,000 cars in Flanders would not have been inspected. And about 16 percent of vehicles are inspected too late.
The Flemish Tax Authorities emphasizes that anyone who is only a few days late with their car inspection does not immediately have to fear a fine: “Our checklists with non-inspected vehicles concern exceeding the inspection date by more than 3 months.”
