Government opening a public bidding process to produce licence plates for 2027 (see related story) makes sense. Although switching to annual windshield stickers as common elsewhere was seen as less costly and taxing on the environment, local enforcement proved an issue.
It turned out there has been a decline in motor vehicle tax income over the past few years, from approximately 11 million guilders in 2023 to around 9 million in 2025. This, while there were presumably more cars on the road.
According to government the sticker system was originally intended to work alongside camera surveillance systems, but those are not yet fully in place. The drop suggests improving collection is necessary to sustainably finance infrastructure maintenance and related priorities.
The announced establishment of a dedicated Road Tax Fund as required by law effective 2027 will be an important step in that direction. However, low compliance threatens to undermine that effort.
After all, the number of paying motorists fell between 2024 and 2025 from respectively 31,835 to 30,160. What’s more, it went down by a whopping 4,102 compared to the 34,262 figure of 2023, approximately 10%.
As stated earlier in this column, one possibility is that these stickers are simply not clearly visible enough for police to easily identify offenders. Perhaps this also has to do with most cars having so many, both for mandatory vehicle inspections and road tax.
It was suggested in the recent past to combine the two, also in terms of their expiration dates, to facilitate controls. Whether that is a feasible option remains to be seen, but for now going back to physical plates seems to be where the smart money is.
