Mayors from most of the provinces in the country’s interior will arrive at the National Congress today to demand from legislators the need for the distribution of public transportation subsidies to be more equitable. The decision was made weeks ago after a resolution from the National Transportation Secretariat that increased subsidies only for the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), while in recent months, since January, the Compensation Fund for the inside.
They will ask that “urgently” there be “a direct contribution to the system of passenger transport by buses in favor of the provinces and, thus, address a problem that concerns the entire country through a -more- federal distribution of national resources.” , according to the letter they released.
It is signed by the mayors Daniel Passerini, from Córdoba; Jorge Jofré, from Formosa; Rosario Romero, from Paraná; Ulpiano Suárez, from Mendoza; Pablo Javkin, from Rosario; Marcos Castro, from Viedma; Mariano Gaido, from Neuquén; Gustavo Saadi, from Catamarca; Raúl Jorge, from Jujuy, Juan Pablo Poletti, from Santa Fe; Leonardo Stelatto, from Posadas, Rodrigo Buteler, from Cipolletti, Martín Pérez, from Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego; Othar Macaharashvili, from Comodoro Rivadavia; Eduardo Tassano, from Corrientes; Armando Molina, from La Rioja, Roy Nikisch, from Resistencia; Norma Fuentes, from Santiago del Estero; Pablo Grasso, from Río Gallegos; Emiliano Durand, from Salta capital; Francisco Azcue, from Concordia, Entre Ríos, and Damián Biss, from Rawson, Chubut.
There are other municipal leaders such as Guillermo Montenegro (from General Pueyrredón) who preferred not to sign, although they agree with the proposal.
“What Argentina has not finished resolving is a difference that is unacceptable, which is that “In the AMBA, rates are paid three to four times lower than what is paid in the interior,” stated the mayor of Rosario, Pablo Javkin.
In dialogue with Eduardo Feinmann on Radio Miter, the communal chief explained that they will take a project to the legislators with a form of financing the subsidies that they do not receive. “Today we are not going with a claim, we are going with a proposal. All Argentines pay the fuel tax when we load. This fuel tax, when distributed, includes transportation in the AMBA and zero in the interior. So we are proposing that what is collected in the interior remains for the interior transportation system,” he explained.
Javkin said that in his city, the bus ticket will go to $940 from June 15, a value that, he stated, is still below the operating cost that companies have, which is around $1,240.
For his part, the mayor of San Salvador de Jujuy, Raul Jorgeagreed with Javkin that there is an “inequality that manifests itself in a very cruel way,” and although he said that it has existed for many years, he assured that it was deepened with the elimination of the Compensation Fund.
Likewise, in addition to increasing the price of the rates, he anticipated that is obliged to eliminate the free universal ticket for students of primary and secondary schools.
In the note they released when announcing the protest, the mayors stated that after Resolution No. 4/2024 “the elimination of national subsidies in the interior of the country has exacerbated pre-existing conditions, seriously affecting all its localities.” With this measure, Transportation increased the subsidies for the AMBA by $148,745 million for May and $160,777 million for June, thereby unblocking a conflict between the business chambers of the sector with the workers of the Automotive Tram Union (UTA) who were asking for a wage recomposition and threatened to paralyze services.
The document adds that “the absence of these subsidies has driven the urgent need to implement solutions to sustain public transportation, through extraordinary municipal and provincial contributions, in addition to rate increases, which, in the interior, triple the AMBA values. ”.
“The biased commitment of the National State in withdrawing subsidies has created a crisis that requires immediate and concrete measures to restore the functionality and sustainability of public transportation in the interior of the country,” they expressed in another paragraph.
“It is evident that the elimination of national subsidies in the interior of the country has exacerbated pre-existing conditions, seriously affecting all its localities. This measure has generated notable uncertainty and concern, both in the business environment and in municipal and provincial governments,” the letter adds. “Added to this issue, there is the fact of the increase in the commission that the Nation deducts from the jurisdictions, for the use of the SUBE service, an increase from 4% to 7%, without having recorded the expected returns,” they stated.
In Mar del Plata, for example, the cost of the minimum ticket is $750 after the increase ordered by the city administration in March after receiving the endorsement of the Deliberative Council. In the AMBA, on the other hand, since March the minimum has remained at $270 because in April and May the Ministry of Economy of the Nation led by Luis Caputo and on which the Ministry of Transportation depends, decided that the rate would not be altered. .
Some of the mayors who sign this letter now, on February 2, had met with the national Secretary of Transportation, Franco Mogetta, to bring their concerns to him.
In it first quarter of 2024, Subsidies for motor transport in the AMBA fell by 23% compared to the same period in 2023, considering inflation, according to the analysis carried out by Infobae of the data provided by the Ministry of Transportation. While The reduction of compensation sent to the provinces registered a decrease of 85%.
In the first four months of this year, the total subsidies transferred to bus companies that travel in the metropolitan area was $287,025 million. While in the same period of 2023, these companies had received $374,105 millionin both cases to values adjusted for inflation as of last April. These transfers were in concept of the so-called Social Attribute, the Integrated Ticket SUBE and Tariff Compensationssubsidies included in the Trust Fund for the Transportation Infrastructure System (FFSIT).
Instead, the rest of the provinces received in the first quarter of 2024 barely $19,353 millionagainst $129,620 million in the same period in 2023to values adjusted to April of this year by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a 85% less.
The data show a marked disproportion between what the AMBA receives and what the Nation gives to the districts in the interior of the country. In this first quarter of 2024at values adjusted for inflation, The AMBA received 94% of the total subsidies for automotive transportation, while all the remaining provinces received only the remaining 6%.
