London Transport Authority Pursues £142 Million in Unpaid Tolls from Foreign Embassies

The public transport service in London (TfL) wants to recover the unpaid bills, which amounted to £142 million in June 2022 against £136 million at the end of September 2021 following the latest list of 128 embassies based in London that remain owing. With unpaid bills amounting to £14.6 million at the end of June 2022, the United States is the most flagrant bad payer. Morocco ranks 47th with £640,590 in arrears. Its eastern neighbor, Algeria, ranks 19th with £2,142,190 million. France ranks 15th, with £2,531,410.

"We are clear that the congestion charge is a service charge and not a tax. This means that foreign diplomats are not exempt from paying it. [...] We continue to claim all unpaid congestion charges and issue related penalty notices," said Paul Cowperthwaite, the toll service manager at TfL, to IanVisists. TfL plans to update the list every 6 months and the debt amount will continue to increase.