QCOSTARICA – Though it has been mistakenly been believed by many that a change sanctions for violating the vehicular restrictions had been adopted, it still isn’t, requiring the signature of President Carlos Alvarado and its publication in official media, before that can happend.
You can’t really blame the many who believed different, some at the cost of having their license plate and/or vehicle confiscate and having six points added to their driver’s license, in addition to the ¢110,000 colones fine for driving during restricted days and times.
The error by many is that the bill that eliminated the confiscation of plates and/or vehicle and points was approved by legislators, in first debate, in September.
The bill came back before legislators and was approved in second and final debate on October 19.
And rwo weeks after, the bill still awaits the signature of the president and its publication in the official governmnet newsletter, La Gaceta, a timing totally in contrast to the bill that reduced the vehicle property tax of the 2021 Marchamo, which was approved in second and final debate by legislators on Thursday (October 29), signed by the President that same night and published the following day (October 30) in La Gaceta, to be in effect on November 1.
On Monday, legislators for the Partido Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) and promoter of the bill, Pablo Heriberto Abarca, said that the president has committed to signing the bill today, Tuesday.
Once this occurs, publication in La Gaceta must occur within 5 working days for the modification to take effect.
This can be called the “normal” way of doing business on a subject that is not really that favorable to the administration and unlike the Marchamo reduction, misinformation by the public allowed the bill to move at a turtle’s pace.
So, be forewarned, until the publication in La Gaceta occurs, police can still seize your vehicle’s plate or the vehicle itself, and you will have to do driver-ed when renewing your license.
The ¢110,000 colones fine will remain.
And as a remninded, these are tehe vehicular restrictions in place for this month (unless changed):This is how the sanitary vehicle restriction works during this month:
From Monday to Friday from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am, except for the list of exceptions, NO VEHICLE CAN CIRCULATE and between 5:00 am and 10:00 pm CANNOT CIRCULATE based on the last digit of the license plate, as follows:
- On Mondays vehicles with plates ending 1 and 2
- On Tuedays vehicles with plates ending 3 & 4
- On Wednesdays vehicles with plates ending 5 & 6
- On Thursdays vehicles with plates ending 7 & 8
- On Fridays vehicles with plates ending 9 & 0
On Saturdays and Sundays, , except for the list of exceptions, NO VEHICLE CAN CIRCULATE between 9:00 pm and 5:00 am.
ALL vehicles can circulate on Saturdays and Sundays between 5:00 am and 9:00 pm.
According to data provided by the Traffic Police, between March 24 and the end of September, 29,945 fines were issued for violating the sanitary vehicle restriction.
The fine was ¢23,000 colones to April 3 (3,214 drivers were fined) and the current fine and sactions starting on April 4 (26,731 drivers were fined).
The sanitary vehicle restriction applied countrywide arose as a measure to try to contain the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
