The investments made in Catalonia this year by the State will grow by several hundred million euros when accounting for the compensation of 1,069.9 million paid to Abertis last February for the end of the AP-7 tolls. According to sources from the Ministry of Transport, the money disbursed to Abertis will probably be considered as investments in the same way as was done last year with the 191 million paid for the rescue of Madrid's radial highways.
In both cases, the money, although it appears as an investment of the year that is disbursed, in reality it is not, because the work has already been carried out and has been in service for many years. Infrastructures that, until last August, citizens paid to use through a toll.
Transport sources said that the aforementioned 1,069 million should be regionalized between the communities of Aragon and Catalonia, which is where the previous toll roads run. However, most of it will correspond to Catalonia.
If this compensation is finally incorporated as an investment, apparently the amounts executed this year would grow considerably. In 2021, the total investment executed in Catalonia was 740 million, while the aforementioned compensation – to which the Catalan community corresponds the largest part – rises to 1,000 million.
Abertis sources said yesterday that the compensation they received in February does not annul the judicial process that they keep open, in which they ask the State for around 4,000 million.
The compensation paid in February is for expansion works on various sections of the AP-7 that the concessionaire was unable to recover by charging tolls. The mess dates back to 2000, when the government approved expanding the road's capacity. The solution was to add a third or fourth lane in certain sections, in addition to a closed toll system between Martorell-Vilaseca/Salou, in order to eliminate trunk barriers and thus avoid the traffic jams they generated.
The cost of these works was assumed by the company. The disbursement would be compensated with the toll collected from the additional traffic generated by the increased capacity of the highway. But the crisis of the brick and the displacements arrived, and the collections in the tolls sank. In this way, the company did not obtain the expected collection after the works to cover its disbursement. The royal decree approved by the Government already provided for compensating the part not covered when the concession expires, that is, in August 2021. However, Abertis claims a higher amount.
Of the money paid, a total of 505.5 million correspond to the investment made, 420 to financial costs and 143.5 to tax purposes.
