After the announcement that they will cancel travel rates in the country, in an interview with EL TIEMPO, the Minister of Transportation, William Camargo, explained the reasons for this decision taken by the National Government, knowing that in January they froze the normal increases that occur at the beginning of the year in light of the CPI (Consumer Price Indices).
William Camargo, Minister of Transportation
Mauricio Moreno. TIME
The January determination, he said, It was a temporary measure to deal with inflation.. During these months, the Government assumed the increase of the CPI with the National Budget, to comply with the agreements with the concessions.
(You may be interested: Dollar in Colombia ends the week with a drop and above levels of 3,971 pesos)
“At this time, users are not paying the increase in the CPI and other increases for some particular projects that are established in the contract (…) These commitments are what allow them to borrow abroad, but since those resources do not arrive, they have to be covered with the Nation’s budget. What are we doing? We are taking resources that could be used to build community roads for peace, universities, colleges and address health and agriculture issues, to cover that value of the CPI”, Camargo explained roughly.
The decision to freeze the tariff has indirectly benefited all Colombians, Well, this helped to prevent the prices of transporting food from the family basket from increasing. “Every time one of these items is uploaded, there is a correlate in the transportation cost and that transportation cost is charged to the user who is going to buy a pound of potatoes or a bundle of rice,” said the minister.
(Also: There are 8 months in which the country’s household spending decreases)
“Just so that we have a dimension, that freeze will leave us a deficit of 800,000 million pesos.”
The question for Colombians is when the increase in rates will be applied which, in turn, will be reflected in the price of food.
“(The Ministry of) Finance is reviewing monthly how the economy is behaving, at what time inflation is lowered to a lesser extent, food prices and When that value is reasonable, the fare increase will be activated so that the higher cost of the flight can absorb it. of transportation or that higher cost of tickets,” said Camargo.
The purpose is that this increase occurs this year so that in 2024 there will not be a double increase. “It should be closing in the last quarter of the year,” added. Likewise, the minister assured that there will be no increases due to inflation.
(Also: Colombia, fifth among the countries with the highest probability of dying on the road)
“Just so that we have a dimension, that freeze left us with a deficit of 800,000 million pesos, which helped contain inflation, but the bill must be paid,” Camargo said.
In an interview, the minister also addressed the issues of the road to Llano, the proposal to restrict private cars at rush hour, public transportation, among others. Read the full interview here.
