On the 29th of March the law of 17 March 2019 concerning the introduction of a mobility budget was published together with a royal decree implementing this law. In comparison with the draft law no changes were made to the published law. It is mainly the royal decree, which implements the law concerning the mobility budget, that contains some interesting, new elements.
First of all, the employee that makes use of the mobility budget needs to have access to some particular information regarding the status of the mobility budget. This information includes for example the amount of the mobility budget, an inventory of the sustainable means of transportation that were already financed, the costs for the administration of the mobility budget,…
Next to that, the royal decree states that if an application or a payment card is used, the employer will have to take the necessary measures to ensure that these instruments can only be used to finance the sustainable means of transportation that he has approved. Furthermore, it is explained what to do in case there is an ‘overcompensation’ of the mobility budget or if the mobility budget is used for means of transportation that were not ratified by the employer. In such cases the employee must, upon request of the employer, refund the unrightfully used sums within 30 days after that request.
Another important part concerns the ‘mobility account’. The mobility account is a database which enables the employer to register and manage the mobility budget. The employer can choose to delegate this task to an external, third party. A mobility account allows the employer to, among other things, grant and supervise the mobility budget or to increase/decrease the amount in case of a change of function which gives right to a higher or lower mobility budget. It has to be created for every employee who has a mobility budget.
If you would like more information concerning the mobility budget, you can have a look at our previous newsflashes. Furthermore, the Belgian Public Services for Labour, Social Security and Finance have in the meantime created a website with an overview of Frequently Asked Questions about the mobility budget (in Dutch or in French).
