If the presentation is successful, the Pan-American operation could remain in the orbit of the state.
The Government published this Thursday in the Official Gazette the decree allowing the start of theand legal actions aimed at declaring the extensions of concessions null and void of the Pan-American and Western Access.
In the large decree 633/2022, which bears the signature of Alberto Fernández, in addition to the signatures of the Chief of Staff, Juan Manzur, and of the Minister of Public Works, Gabriel Katopodis, they declared “Harmful to the general interest, by virtue of the existence of serious defects which affect its legitimacythe decrees “through which, in 2018,” the Full Contractual Renegotiation Agreements of the Concession Agreements for North and West Access to the City of Buenos Aires were approved “.
In article no. 2, meanwhile, a mandate was given “to the National Roads Management to file, through its dependent bodies, the relevant deed of lesividad in order to obtain the judicial declaration of nullity of the aforementioned acts “in the previous section.
The goal, as anticipated Wednesday by the President together with Katopodis, is avoiding increases in toll prices, which they considered “inevitable” in the current situation. The president’s announcement was made on the same day INDEC reported that the August consumer price index hit 7%, which led to year-on-year inflation of over 78%.
“In our opinion, these are absolutely overwhelming contracts, which have generated economic damage for the national State and for users. The action will be carried out by the Litigation-Administrative Justice by the Ministry of Public Works”, said the President .
Furthermore, he added: “We have verified that theContracts were disadvantageous for users motorways and caused enormous damage to the state “” If we had allowed the application of the contract, a current user of Autopista del Sol who pays about 100 pesos I would pay 1,800 pesos. Here’s what would have happened “, exemplifies Alberto Fernández.
Up to now the North Access has been granted in concession to the Autopistas del Sol (Ausol) company, while the West Access is in the hands of the Grupo Concesario del Oeste (GCO).
Among the prerequisites of the provision, the one that summarizes the arguments of the Government stood out. He claims that “in no way can the existence of an irregular act be toleratedespecially when this generates in favor of an individual a subjective right in violation of the administrative public order, which results in economic damage for the national State and for users.
The executive power understands that the previous administration has validated an “alleged debt” of the national state of 540 million dollars with Autopistas del Sol and 272 million dollars with the Grupo Concesionario del Oeste.
Abertis, the Spanish group majority shareholder of both companies, had filed an appeal with Ciadi, the World Bank’s international arbitration tribunal. The company was asking for compensation of up to $ 1.135 million at the time.
As part of the renegotiation of the previous management, Vialidad extended the concession from 2020 to 2030, the deadline for Autopistas del Sol to recover investments already made and not amortized. The company, in turn, has pledged to disburse $ 7.3 billion in new works.
Alberto Fernández criticized the Macri government and justice
The President assured that the renegotiations of the contracts were “remarkably beneficial for the concessionary companies and highly harmful for the State and users”,
In parallel, he framed the judicial presentation announced this Wednesday to the lawsuit known as Tolls. It also linked it to the Correo case and to the Public-Private Participation contracts, known as PPPs, also promoted by the Macri government.
“This is a way of running the state. We need to change things and no longer allow people to stand on both sides of the counter,” Fernández said.
IS
Source: Clarin
