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German toll collect ready by 2004 Q3,executive says

BERLIN, Dec 26 (Reuters) - A consortium of firms developing a truck highway toll scheme will try to prevent the German government from cancelling its contract and vowed to have the system ready by the 2004 third quarter, a company executive said on Friday.

Peter Mihatsch, supervisory board chairman of the Toll Collect consortium made up of Deutsche Telekom, DaimlerChrysler and France's Cofiroute told Focus magazine the system could be running by the third quarter.

That would be a year later than promised, an embarrassing and costly setback for Germany and possibly the consortium. A German parliamentary committee said the toll scheme could be scrapped if there is no decision on a launch date by the end of 2003.

"Despite all the setbacks we want to make the truck toll in Germany a success," Mihatsch told Focus. He said Toll Collect will produce an efficient system. "The consortium is offering a start date in the third quarter of 2004."

The system, with ground-breaking satellite-based tracking technology, was originally due to start on August 31 but its roll-out has been delayed due to technical problems and was not expected to start before at least mid-2004.

Germany has billed the consortium 1.3 billion euros ($1.61 billion) in lost revenues and other fines, but the consortium partners say there are no grounds for paying damages.

Under the toll system, Germany aims to charge 12-tonne trucks 12.4 euro cents per kilometre across its highway network, the most heavily used in Europe.

The system is set to raise 2.8 billion euros ($3.5 billion) per year, with 2.1 billion of that flowing into state coffers.

Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe has said the contract with Toll Collect should be cancelled if no timetable and agreement on refunds for lost toll revenues is reached by the end of 2003.

A spokesman for Toll Collect said the consortium was willing to accept penalties for any delays beyond the third quarter of 2004 but would not accept responsibility for current delays.

The government is losing out on toll revenues of some 156 million euros for each month the system is not operating.

On Tuesday, Deutsche Telekom reportedly proposed a new later start date to the government for launching the road toll system.

In a letter to the transport ministry, Telekom said the government could start charging a toll from the fourth quarter of 2004 or at the latest the first quarter of 2005.

Should the toll system not be ready by December 31, 2004, Telekom would be willing to pay a fine of up to 500 million euros, it said in the letter.

Telekom made the proposal to the transport ministry alone, without its Toll Collect consortium partner DaimlerChrysler.