The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Oscar Puente, has made it clear today that the project to tax the use of the toll road network is alive, although the Government will withdraw it from its list of commitments with the European Commission on access to Next Generation funds in September of last year. The project contemplated the imposition of a toll system starting in 2024 and its withdrawal, with Minister Raquel Sánchez at the head of Transport, does not seem to have been definitive.
In fact, Puente recalled that Spain has a pending reflection on how it finances its roads, whether through taxes (as now) or through tolls. “Roads are not free, either they are paid for through their users or they are paid for through everyone’s taxes. We will have to make a decision and I invite political parties to reflect responsibly,” he noted in the ‘Wake Up!’ forum Spain’ from ‘El Espaol’.
The minister has warned that if the choice is to pay them with taxes, “not very fair” situations will continue to occur, such as a truck coming from Germany as it passes through the different countries of the European Union paying to use the tracks, but When he arrives in Spain he does it for free. The system that the Government will implement will affect all citizens and not only foreign transport companies or those from other community countries.
Puente recalled that the Government’s current policy is to withdraw tolls from all the highways on which they are present as the contracts with the companies in charge of operating them expire, Europa Press reports.
“What we are doing is going to a uniform system. We have already liberalized tolls on 1,000 of the 2,500 kilometers of highways that we found when we came to government in 2018 and when that is homogenized, we will have to make a decision as a country,” he said. concluded on the matter.
CONSENSUS WITH THE PP
Regarding the Sustainable Mobility Bill, whose approval must be given before the end of the year to receive a new payment from European funds, the minister has reached out to the PP to achieve a consensus on its processing.
“It is a project that will require the contribution of everyone and broad consensus. I would like this law to go forward, at a minimum, with the support of the two major parties in this country. And I believe it is possible, not only desirable, but it is possible,” he added.