The Executive proposes to the concessionaires a maximum increase of 4% instead of an increase linked to the average inflation of the year as indicated by the regulations
With just over a week to go until the end of the year, the government is analyzing counter-clockwise measures to dampen the historic 8.4% rise in tolls on January 1. The contracts provide for an increase linked to the 12-month CPI, which, given the high inflation, would lead to an unprecedented increase in toll roads this year.
Industry sources assure this newspaper that the executive is considering a 4% increase, although the Department of Transportation has not yet confirmed this percentage. This increase would represent the largest increase in the past thirteen years, but would halve the expected increase if no action was taken.
The companies operating the highways claimed the increase was 8.4%, according to annual inflation as of November 30, so now the government will have to find the formula to compensate for this loss of income. The Ministry of Transport continues negotiations with the concessionaires of the payment routes to determine both the final rate of increase and the compensation mechanisms.
Ministry sources indicate that they have analyzed “several alternatives” to determine the eventual increase in tolls, taking into account the “complicated international moment of high energy prices”. For example, they remember that this crisis mainly affects mobility and that the Executive has the “vocation to face the spiral of inflation”.
Everything indicates that the final proposal will be approved on December 29 at the last cabinet meeting of the year, when the government is expected to elaborate the list of measures to deal with the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine in 2023. .
If the cap is finally set at 4%, it will be the first time that the government has not applied the revaluation of tolls according to the CPI since the system was approved in 2002. The highest increase in recent years occurred in 2007, when the toll increased by 4.5% according to the 2006 average inflation rate.
Far below the increases of recent years, with 1.97% in 2022, 0.11% in 2021, 0.84% in 2020 or 1.2% in 2019.
The toll roads that don’t go up are bailed out by the state. The government announced this Tuesday that it will manage the broken highways after the 2008 crisis at least until December 2032, another ten years by renewing operating agreements for the nine highways saved in 2017. And these rates will be frozen again in 2023.
From the Executive, they argue that the decision was made after these highways made a net profit of 1.2 million euros in 2021 compared to a loss of 6 million euros the previous year. They are financed by collecting tolls from users (radius 2, 3, 4 and 5, M-12, AP-41, AP-36 and the AP-7 Circunvalación de Alicante and Cartagena-Vera) and capital contributions from the Ministry of Transport .
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
