Cash payment for parking in the centre of Baku suspended

Baku/07.08.23/Turan: From today, payment for parking of vehicles in the centre of Baku - zone 1 can be made only in cashless form.

The Ministry of Digital Development and Transport has stated that demanding cash from drivers for parking is completely illegal.

As mentioned earlier, payment will be made through the AzParking mobile app, SMS and payment terminal.

Drivers must open the mobile app immediately after parking the car and confirm that parking has started. Those who wish to pay via SMS should send the car's state registration plate, parking space number and parking spot to the short number 1181 when parking starts. Otherwise, fines will be imposed against the drivers. Those who have parked their cars in places not designated as parking spaces will also be fined.

Controllers, as well as "transport volunteers" will be involved in the process in order to enforce the established rules of parking in parking spaces, control the implementation of payments, including education and information in the area.

Earlier, on 25 June, the Cabinet of Ministers enacted a resolution on "Amount of vehicle parking fees". With that end in view, 4 zones are defined: Centre - 1 hour/1 manat, Zone 1 - 1 hour/0.70 manat, Zone 2 - 1 hour/0.40 qapiks, Zone 3 - 1 hour/0.30 qapiks, Zone 4 - free of charge.

Also, no parking fee will be charged for vehicles in zones 2 in Ganja and Sumgayit cities

For many years, the government and city authorities have introduced various ways of paying for parking, but all of them failed, as this multi-million shadow business is corrupt. Payments for parking were made in cash without issuing receipts. Most of the proceeds from parking went into the pockets of officials and police. Parking has always been considered a profitable shadow business.

The very decision that only in the centre of the city the parking payments will be made in cashless form already shows that the officials controlling this business are trying to fail the initiative or at least to delay the widespread use of cashless payments.-0-