According to the daily Helsingin Sanomat, as many as 5,000 vehicle tax invoices were not mailed out to vehicle owners following a printing error that occurred on May 10. The mishap was only discovered more than a month later. The due date of the tax invoices was June 10.
“In this case, the prints for this one date weren’t sent out and this went undetected,” said TraFi department head Juha Kenraali.
Kenraali said he was not able to say for sure when the printing error was detected.
Usage bans resulting from postal error overturned
On Tuesday TraFi said that road usage bans caused by unpaid vehicle taxes resulting from the postal slip-up had already been overturned in the vehicle register.
“A mistake has been made and it’s been rectified,” Kenraali remarked.
TraFi said that it regrets the blunder and that it had mailed letters to all vehicle owners had not received their invoices by mail.
Earlier in June, the authority managed to send out notices about possible road use prohibitions and payment reminders to vehicle owners. Car owners who received incorrect invoices have also received new copies with a new due date.
In cases where car owners have needlessly paid for payment reminders, interest charged on payment delays will be waived on subsequent vehicle tax invoices.
Similar incident two years ago
Two years ago a similar incident occurs when a printing error by Itella affected more than 50,000 tax invoices.
TraFi says it will negotiate with Itella to prevent similar occurrences in future.