The widely spread ANPR cameras along Flemish roads in Belgium have caught 10 714 car drivers in traffic who didn’t pay the yearly road tax in 2022. They got an invoice for immediate payment and an additional €116 fine. Another 384 vehicles were towed away. That filled the Flemish government’s kitty with 5,4 million euros.

The figures come from the Flemish VLABEL agency, the road inspection service under the authority of the Flemish Tax Agency, and were asked for by Flemish MP Maurits Vande Reyde (Open Vld). He questions how the authorities glide down to “a police state where every unpaid invoice leads to pinpointing the citizen as a criminal”.

Valid technical control

VLABEL also got the green light this summer to check number plates for a valid technical control report of the car. As for unpaid taxes, these cars can be plucked out of traffic by the police. For Vande Reyde, this is a bridge too far.

A recent audit of the Flemish technical control centers, managed by a limited number of private companies, showed a lot of shortcomings, causing lengthy waiting lines and unavailability of appointments on time.

Jeopardizing privacy

Marking people victims of this situation as ‘criminals’ by ANPR cameras is not done, Vande Reyde states in a press release. He is afraid this opens the way to expand the usage of ANPR cameras even further, jeopardizing an individual’s privacy.

In a reaction, VLABEL says there are no plans for further expansion than the examples mentioned, and no records are kept of people being fined.