Bus stop: the reasons, between the subsidy crisis and the management of the “black box”

He bus stop on multiple lines in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) is the final result of an economic crisis that has been affecting the sector for 15 years, but which has erupted in the last year and a half with the acceleration of inflation and the arrears of tariffs and subsidies.

However, the trigger for this strike was the management of Trust Fundsthat the government called “black boxes” of politics. This week, Economy Minister Luis Caputo took administrative control of those $1.7 trillion.

The entrepreneurs of public automotive transport say so The nation did not send the grant funds, which are usually channeled through the Transportation Infrastructure System Trust Fund (FFSIT)so some companies couldn’t pay salaries this Wednesday, the fourth working day of the month.

The current budget of this fund for 2024 is $479,216.31 million, and approximately $112,139.19 million, or 23.4%, has already been executed.

As of March 6, the debt of the Nation – to a greater extent – and the City of Buenos Aires to bus companies amounted to 50,498 million dollars per lines 1 to 199, which are those that only cross the City or cross Avenida General Paz or Riachuelo; while the province owed $40,528 million for lines from 200 onwards, which only pass through municipalities, according to the Argentine Association of Automobile Transport Entrepreneurs (AAETA).

That missing by 91,026 million dollars he determined it they will not be paid THE wages of bus drivers, represented as a union by the Automotive Tram Union (UTA). The problem, say official sources, The matter will be resolved this Thursday.

Previously, many public service companies had also not paid the contribution Bond set at $140,000 agreed in the joint agreement, as the government was slow to recognize the new cost structure.

According to Resolution 15/2024 of the Ministry of Transport, bus lines that pass from the City to Greater Buenos Aires (called “SGI”) are recognized $891.01, of which passengers pay an average of $187 with their fares. $50 and the state makes up the difference payment with benefits. However, companies support it the “real” cost is close to $1000.

Another official decision has generated noise in the industry. Last month the Government authorized the renewal of units every 13 years (maximum) instead of every 10 years. This would have helped to dilute the costs, but they were calculated within the structure to lower the necessary compensation allocated by the State.

Simpler: the entrepreneurs thought that Transport would transfer a sum to renew the buses every 10 years, when they had 3 years of advantage to calculate the benefits, but the money was saved by the State.

The next tariff increase in AMBAwhich could ease the financial suffocation of the sector, it will be in April and would be linked to January and February inflation in Greater Buenos Aires (GBA).