In which the economic capacity of each user is taken into account
MADRID, 20 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Isabel Pardo de Vera, has raised the possibility of creating a progressive system, in which the economic capacity of each user is taken into account, with a view to the implementation of tolls in all highways in the country.
During his participation in a commission of the Congress of Deputies to explain the General State Budgets for 2023, Pardo de Vera has admitted that the current highway financing model is “unsustainable”. The data point to a deficit of 9,000 million euros.
“It is an unsustainable model. If there were a pact, which would have to be beyond the political times, this issue would be resolved, but all the governments have kicked it forward and have done nothing. This is not moving so that no one appears in the photo and the claws come out, but I do not conceive of Congress as a jungle,” he said.
Subsequently, he explained that his department would have preferred to design free public transport, which has already been applied since September to CercanÃas and Media Distancia, from the point of view of fiscal progressivity, since there are recurring train travelers who can afford to pay the ticket and others that do not.
However, the special situation has meant that this decision has had to be made quickly and to make travel free in general, without taking into account the income of each person. Pardo de Vera has linked this progressiveness to the implementation of highway tolls, saying that “these measures must be taken from a progressive point of view”.
In any case, he has insisted that a model will be presented when there is a political consensus on an issue that he believes should be addressed “with criteria of territorial structure, equality and security”.
In next year’s PGE, the Secretary of State has recalled that nearly 2,700 million euros will be allocated to maintaining and expanding the State road network, almost 9% more than a year ago, with special emphasis on the conservation of the roads.
“We have the obligation to plan a system that allows the financing of the system and that does not decline depending on the political and economic cycles and allows us to cover maintenance costs, integrate the negative externalities of road transport and modernize the entire network and its operation. towards an electric future”, he concluded.
