The Government has announced that it plans to implement a toll system for the use of Spanish highways and highways from 2024, although it does not rule out extending it to high capacity roads, both national and regional. It is a measure included in the Recovery Plan that the Government has sent to Brussels to remedy the economic effects caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Santiago Child, economist, has been shown in ‘Window’ supporter of this initiative, although not without certain nuances. “As the European Union is painting it, it does not have to be seen as an income, but as a less payment,” he explains. “It will not be a tax, it will be a fee, it will be paid to use. Maintaining the roads costs about 8 billion euros a year. It is true that taxes are paid, but the maintenance does not provide for everything ”. “The roads are used by certain people, and I think they should pay for it,” he adds.
However, Niño points out that, in his opinion, this tax should only be used to maintain the roads, “and not to do business”. And it proposes some additional detail, such as that the wear of the road caused by each vehicle should be taken into account. In short, the economist welcomes this measure, arguing that thus “The public budget for maintenance is discharged, and that collection can be used for other things such as health or education.”
Mario Arnaldo, President of ‘Associated European Motorists’, for his part, he has been against the government’s announcement. “They want to act on free highways that say they are free, but they are not. All citizens finance them from the budget “. These roads, explains Mario, “are 7% of the Spanish road network, but they support 37% of the traffic.” “We contribute 25 billion euros a year to maintenance, we are already contributing”. The problem, he says, is that this collection ends up going to other infrastructures.
On the other hand, Mario is skeptical that this rate will translate into an increase in road safety. And to illustrate his argument, he presents the example of Portugal, which introduced a similar system in 2010, which caused the traffic of the affected roads to be diverted by 30% to other roads, also negatively impacting the territories close to tolls. “The miracle of the decrease in traffic accidents in Spain did not come from the points card, it came from the doubling of the highways.” “The toll system is to go back to the Middle Ages, to reinstate the right of portazgo”, Add.
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