In less than two weeks, on July 1st, the collection of the contribution for the service of garages or public parking areas will begin to take effect in Cali.
According to the criteria of
In other words, they will be the users of the city’s parking lots, Whether they are drivers of motorcycles or private cars, within what they pay in the fees that each of these locations will make a contribution of 1,700 pesos.
It is the value stipulated and regulated by the mayor of Alejandro Eder, through decree 0439 of this 2024. This is a collection that will be destined to strengthen the transportation system of the Massive Integrated of the West (MIO).
Nevertheless, according to the Secretary of Mobility of Cali, Wílmer Tabares, although the decree indicates that the measure will begin on July 1: “We are in the implementation process. I would think that it will take a little longer, because we are in the process of developing the application, having forms already available and we have to do a socialization process with the administrators (of the parking lots) so that they understand how they should do it. I would believe that it will take a little longer.
He added that based on the decree, the collection would begin on July 1, but there will be more time to comply with said socialization and have the appropriate technological platform for collection.
Cali’s automobile fleet has about 700,000 vehicles.
Photo:TIME
Of the more than 200 parking spaces in Cali, their administrators will have to take into account allocating from their rates those 1,700 that each user pays because they precisely use the parking lot each time they do so. If you entered only once in a day, you are charged only 1,700 pesos, but if the driver left and enters again, it will be another 1,700.
Now, according to the decree, the administrators of these establishments, which generally handle different rates, must think about what collection system they will apply to make this contribution from their clients more transparent and it is one of the issues that councilors It raises doubts, since not many parking lots are legal or have land use to provide this service. This collection system by the administrators themselves could be technological, through a platform or cash payments.
Likewise, the contribution made by Mayor Eder is the product of decisions that come from the second period of government of former President Juan Manuel Santos, between 2016 and 2018, so that the territorial entities in the cities had legal tools to obtain resources directed to the MIO, one of them is this contribution, as well as the congestion fee that is being charged, when drivers wish to travel in their vehicles during peak and plate days.
But collecting this contribution is not a decision now. It was part of agreement 0452, approved by the District Council in 2018, to guarantee the sustainability of the MIO, which includes the congestion fee, as well as the economic exploitation of parking on public roads, redirected income with patio services, public service taxes and the surtax on regular and extra motor gasoline. In that agreement 0452 it was indicated: “Establish in Santiago de Cali, the contribution for the service of garages or parking areas for public use that must be borne by the driver of a motor vehicle when using an establishment service for public use, whether on or off the road”.
For councilors like Roberto Ortiz, this measure is nothing more than an increase in the rate, since the administrators will continue with their charges the same, but with the additional contribution. For example, in the Cali Terminal parking lot, they charge 2,500 per six hours to park motorcycles; 5,000, 12 hours and 10,000, 24 hours.
While for a car, the initial hour is 4,400 pesos and the additional hour is 2,300, while an entire day costs 57,300.
In this parking lot they indicated that they are not informed about the decree for said contribution. Nor are they in a parking lot on Roosevelt Avenue, in the south of Cali, where the hour for a motorcycle is 2,000 pesos, plus 500 in the additional hour, and 2,000 per car, plus 1,000 in the second hour. In the center, where there are some stores on Carrera 5 and Calle 13 and whose capacity is for 60 private cars and 100 motorcycles, they asked for more information.
“An increase of 1,700 pesos was authorized by the Administration of Mayor Alejandro Eder to Cali businessmen who have parking spaces, who will not benefit from charging this increase for vehicle parking, since the resource will be used to finance the MIO,” he said. Ortiz.
Around 400,000 motorcycles and more than 500,000 private vehicles circulate in Cali.
Photo:TIME
He assured that the increase allows many administrators to raise the hourly charge to up to 6,000 pesos and it will be the user who must assume the cost. “This abusive increase that the Mayor’s Office makes to discourage the use of private vehicles and force citizens to use the MIO; But it can be a double-edged sword, because given the terrible public transportation service, citizens will opt for pirate transportation,” added the lobbyist.
“This is an occurrence of the mayor on duty, as was the installation of pots in another Administration. They are wrong decisions. They should improve the routes of the MIO system, expand routes and frequencies, comply with schedules, facilitate recharging and put more buses into circulation. The solution is not to put more financial burdens on the people of Cali,” said Ortiz.
Other councilors consider that the collection of the contribution It shouldn’t just be for users, but for administrators. However, some of the latter fear that with this precaution they must take, customers will be scared and not use the parking lots.
For councilor Ana Leidy Erazo, Metrocali became a bottomless barrel that citizens have to support through their taxes because the poor service of the MIO has the system in crisis.
The councilor recalled that, according to legal regulations, the co-financing of mass transportation systems corresponds to the Nation, based on the quality of the service, avoiding evasion of paying the fare. “We have always talked about the renegotiation of contracts as a way out of this financial crisis, but not opting for more taxes to allocate to the MIO,” said Erazo.
The annoyance, stated the lobbyist, is that the Mayor’s Office, instead of renegotiating the concession with the operators, what it does is give more money to private entrepreneurs, deepening the social crisis due to lack of investment on several fronts.
“To finance the MIO they increased parking rates, that is, people continue paying for poor service and with a new No. 9, 140,000 million of free-use income will be allocated and now they will be assigned another 42,000 million, which is unfair because those items should be used to make social investment in the city,” said Erazo.
The Councilor recalled that it is not by giving the money from local taxes to the MIO that the service will improve, when one should think about modifying the contracts with the operators and think about a multimodal system of public passenger transport that responds to the needs of the people of Cali. .
CAROLINA BOHÓRQUEZ
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Cali
