PS Socialists consider it is “feasible, fair and timely”
A proposal to end tolls on ex-SCUT motorways comes up for discussion in parliament tomorrow with PS Socialists saying it believes such a decision to be “feasible, fair and timely”.
This is one of the most ‘expedient’ proposals to come from PS Socialists: eight years in government and they consistently balked at an end to tolls (already deemed illegal by the European Commission).
Following the ‘fall of the government’ late last year however, and the proposal became an election pledge, which PS secretary general Pedro Nuno Santos promised he would enact within days of becoming the country’s prime minister.
This didn’t happen – hence the proposal now, which is accompanied by very similar proposals by Bloco de Esquerda and PCP communists, and ‘draft resolutions’ (without the force of law) presented by PSD/ CDS-PP (the parties in government), Iniciativa Liberal, PAN and CHEGA.
As Lusa stresses, “with the current geometry of the Assembly of the Republic and with the parties not yet telling Lusa how they will vote on the different initiatives, the outcome of these votes is still unknown”.
Speaking to Lusa, PS MP Isabel Ferreira recalled that PS Socialists have “been consistent in their commitment to a gradual reduction in toll rates until they are eliminated.
“In 2021 we made a 25% reduction in tolls as early as January, then in July 2021 a 50% reduction and now since January of this year a 65%”.
According to Isabel Ferreira, the “additional effort” for tolls to be eliminated in their entirety has a “territorial cohesion perspective because it reduces the burden on those who have no alternative and also makes it possible to provide proper access to essential goods and services”.
This is, in effect, an admission that the tolls should never have been implemented. The whole ethos of SCUT highways was to promote territorial cohesion/ allow the development of populations and areas that “had no alternative to proper access to essential goods and services”. To return the highways to people, free of charge, is to restore the reason for which they were constructed (with considerable help from EU funds).
Thus, the PS proposal has to be seen in this light: it is simply trying to right a wrong that its own governments, in the past, perpetuated – particularly now that it doesn’t have to pay for it.
Says Lusa, “the PS proposal aims to end tolls on the A4 – Transmontana and Marão Tunnel, A13 and A13-1 -Pinhal Interior, A22 – Algarve, A23 – Beira Interior, A24 – Interior Norte, A25 – Beiras Litoral and Alta and A28 – Minho on the stretches between Esposende and Antas and between Neiva and Darque.
The proposal, according to the Socialists, has an estimated cost of €157 million.
Continuing with the ‘territorial cohesion argument’, Isabel Ferreira said: “Let’s hope the proposal is approved (…) it should mobilise and commit all parties”.
Confronted with the fact that her party, at the time with an absolute majority, rejected proposals by the PSD, CHEGA and PCP to end the payment of tolls in 2023, she explained that at the time the government was “still in the process of gradually reducing tolls, with a working group set up to study this reduction in context costs associated with mobility and decarbonisation issues”.
The Bloco de Esquerda and PCP proposals are very similar: the former proposing to eliminate tolls on motorways accessing inland regions (A22, A23, A24, A25, A28, A29, A41, A42) and the PSP wanting to abolish this payment on the A4, A13, A22, A23, A24, A25, A28, A29, A41 and A42.
The government parties, PSD and CDS-PP, have joined forces on a draft resolution that recommends the gradual and financially responsible reduction of tolls in the interior and in large metropolitan areas, with the intention that the executive should present parliament with the costs involved in adopting this measure and a study that sets base values that take into account the costs of maintaining the roads.
Also without the force of law, CHEGA is debating a draft resolution that provides for the implementation of a gradual toll exemption plan; IL is recommending that the government assess the cost-benefit of exempting former SCUTs from tolls – and PAN is suggesting the renegotiation of public-private partnership contracts in the road sector.
Reading between the lines, it looks like illegal ex-SCUT motorway tolls will be around for a while longer. ND
Source material: LUSA
