Today the decree that establishes the requirements are the tolls of the national territory that will not register an increase in their rates for this yearas announced in recent days by the Minister of Transportation, Guillermo Reyes.
From the Executive, Risk and Legal Vice-presidencies of the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), as well as the Legal areas of Mintransporte and Invías, they dedicated themselves to working on the structuring and validation process of the Decree to be signed by President Gustavo Petro to make this measure firm.
(Also read: Collect valuation for roads in 2024, the exit to avoid going up trips)
The decision to freeze the rates was made as a result of the winter wave that has wreaked havoc in different areas of the country -such as the Pan-American highway- and the affectation of sectors that see increases in their transportation and operating coststicket and freight prices.
According to Minister Guillermo Reyes, the idea is that more than 80 percent of tolls by the ANI (113) and the National Institute of Roads (30) does not have any variation in their rates. If this decision is not made, from this Monday, January 16, those of Invías will have to rise to 13.12 percent, which was the inflation that Colombia will touch in all of 2022, according to what Dane revealed.
The purpose is to face the already inflation
the winter wave situation that several departments are going through
In this way, it seeks not to further affect inflation, which last year closed at a figure not seen since March 1999, in addition to giving relief to transporters and Colombians who travel through national roads and have had to face in recent months the effects of the inflationary phenomenon, which not only affects Colombia but many countries in the world.
«The purpose, in addition to preventing travel costs from increasing, is to cope with inflation, the winter wave situation that various departments are currently going through and the external factors that affect our economy. For this reason, we are looking for sources that help us supply this income and we will alleviate the increase in the costs of transporting passengers, cargo and food”, said the minister.
The resources that will not be collected due to the non-increase in toll prices total approximately 600,000 million pesos per year -according to the Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo- and will come from the budget expansion that will be processed in February, once they begin Congress sessions.
(Read also: Variant that will be the definitive solution for the Panamericana will go to Invías)
Of this total, close to 60,000 million pesos would stop entering the booths loaded by Invías and more than 500,000 million pesos to those loaded by ANI.
However, this money will be returned to the Nation with what begins to be collected with the collection of the road valuation taxwhich will come into effect in 2024. Another alternative is capital gains.
The Minister of Transport assured that this valuation will not be charged to families from less favored classes and the resources will be used to finance works or to eliminate tolls in the country. «We hope that next year this issue will be ready to start charging. The higher the socioeconomic stratum and the size of the property, the more will be paid,» he added.
In this matter of valuation, it is still pending that the national government define Preferred will be the ways they will use for these charges. Through a decree, the proper specifications must be issued.
It is worth mentioning that there are also regional trips, which are in charge of the departments; however, the national government’s proposal is that these copper points are also included in the measure.
