(Yicai Global) April 29 -- China will restart taking fees from drivers who use toll roads, including toll bridges and tunnels, on May 6 as the Covid-19 epidemic eases its grip on the nation.

Drivers, except for those that pursue rescue and disaster relief missions, transport fresh agricultural products or combine harvesters, will need to pay the toll again, the transport ministry said in a statement yesterday. Payments were suspended from Feb. 17.

Some CNY1.5 billion (USD212 million) had been saved every day due to the free toll policy, Vice Minister Liu Xiaoming said on March 6.

China's traffic authorities have used the break to upgrade their electronic toll collection systems that should function normally after some hiccups during testing, the ministry added yesterday. It was reported earlier that the ETC systems had erroneously billed some clients in the past couple of months.

Some half of China's 21 mainland-listed firms in the highway sector that have released their first-quarter earnings reports have all posted sliding net profits and revenues, according to Wind data. The market caps of these 21 firms have narrowed by more than CNY30 billion to CNY236.9 billion from the end of last year.

Editor: Emmi Laine