Tolls for highways and highways must rise by 8.4% in January in accordance with the provisions of the contracts signed with the State, which include specific reviews linked to the evolution of prices.
This is the figure that the companies have transferred to the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda for its application as of January 1, 2023 in the roads of state competence, according to sources in the sector. Now it is up to the ministry to sign and publish in the BOE a resolution with the revision of tariffs and the companies are waiting for this week to be informed of the final percentage of increases.
Ministry sources tell La Vanguardia that "different options are being analyzed" and for the moment the final figure has not been decided. In any case, the concessionaires themselves recognize that the 8.4% increase may affect traffic that has not yet fully recovered after the pandemic and they are open to accepting different solutions.
The tolls paid by drivers on state highways are reviewed according to the CPI for the last twelve months at the end of November. On the roads that fall under the jurisdiction of the autonomous communities, as is the case in Catalonia, the formula is similar, although it may vary in the month chosen to make the calculation.
If the Government does not raise the price by this percentage, it must apply some compensation mechanism. The companies are willing to accept it on the condition that the final effect is neutral on the amortizations and income of the infrastructures.
The most probable option is that the rise to drivers is lower and that the differential is paid by another means, although there are other formulas, such as laminating the increase over the next few years. A third formula is to extend the concession, which seems less likely.
Spanish motorways, unlike what happened in other countries, have not yet recovered the levels prior to the pandemic. Discounts for public transport and teleworking, which have become established in many professional profiles, explain this lower level of traffic from their point of view.
The review of tolls coincides with the reflection between the Government and the companies regarding the mechanism to finance from 2024 the Spanish motorways and dual carriageways with tolls. The forecast of the companies is that the model will be implemented gradually, in a first phase through the use of what is known as vignettes, with which you pay for a badge that gives you the right to use the roads for a specific time. Subsequently, telematic control systems would be used, with arches on the tracks and payment per kilometer traveled.
