Caputo puts more subsidies on buses and moves away strikes

Through resolution 48/2026, published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette, the new cost structure recognized by the Government for the automotive passenger transport system was approved, with a “technical rate” – made up of the amount collected for tickets and subsidies – of $ 1,816 on average2% more than the previous $1,778.

The Government thus granted one of the requests that the companies had been making, which was recognize the real price of diesel that they use and that had a sharp increase starting in March, after the start of the war in the Middle East.

However, the amounts that the companies will receive are still below what they claim should be the real cost per passenger, which the Argentine Association of Automotive Transport Entrepreneurs (AAETA) calculated at $2,138 without VAT.

This difference represents a loss of $76,000 million per month for the system, which translates into a lower quality of service, worse frequencies and older units in circulation through the City of Buenos Aires and the suburbs.

In order to pay more subsidies but without compromising the Economy fund, the Government removed from the calculation 3% of the cars and 2% of the kilometers that each of the 17,000 units must travel.

Luciano Fusaro, president of AAETA, analyzed that the economic situation of bus companies “it improved somewhat” in recent months because Economy became “more up to date with the flow of payments.” “But the problem is that, as part of the adaptation, the system became even smaller,” noticed.

“One part was resolved by financial normalization, another by honesty of prices and another by system setting (fewer cars, fewer passengers and fewer kilometers traveled). Thus a new balance was reached, but it consists of fewer frequencies and passengers who have adapted to it and stop using buses, walking or traveling on their own,” said Fusaro.