2023-06-29 02:03:59
The Government and the PP have once again become entangled in a dispute over highway tolls for the drafting of one of the articles of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. Specifically, the second page of the plan states that Spain will approve a Sustainable Mobility Law that will contemplate “the creation of a payment mechanism for the use of State highways, which will begin to function as of 2024.”
That “starting in 2024” is what led the Popular Party Deputy Secretary of Economy, Juan Bravo, yesterday to affirm that although the chief executive, Pedro Sánchez, “does not count it”, in the year 2024 they will begin to pay for the use of highways by being “committed” to the plan. For this reason, Bravo asked that when citizens have to pay to use the highways next year if they win the elections, a PP government should not be accused of “raising taxes” because this is one of the points included in the aforementioned plan .
The date, open
But that “from 2024” is not interpreted in the same way from the Government. Sources from the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma), assure that what was promised to the European Commission, and they say that Brussels accepted it, is to implement tolls from the year 2024, not specifically in 2024. «Another thing It is that then Brussels says that everyone has to do it on X date, which could be, but that we are not in that at the moment, “they add.
From the Mitma they defend that there is room to first propose a model and then propose its application gradually. But, they insist, “it is” from “that date”, not next year specifically.
From the Government they emphasize again that they have never hidden anything in this. «We have always said that we should go towards that model [el pago por uso de los autovías]but that we have not addressed it yet because the necessary context or political climate for the necessary consensus for this is not given.
Yesterday, from Santander, the employers’ association of the large highway construction and concessionaires, Seopan, demanded to resume as soon as possible the Sustainable Mobility Law in which tolls are collected in order to proceed with its implementation as soon as possible. This norm was being processed in the Congress of Deputies when Pedro Sánchez announced the electoral advance for July 23. For this reason, it declined and now it has to be taken up again in the Lower House for processing.
Preparations
Although from the PSOE they assure that the precise economic circumstances have not yet occurred to apply the tolls, the truth is that at no time has it stopped working on the issue. In August of last year, Ineco, the public engineering company that is developing a study of alternatives for the management and financing model of the road network at the request of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma), awarded the consultancy KPMG a legal advice and consultancy contract specialized in tax and tax matters in the field of highways to help you with your work.
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