The Government approves the update of highway tolls for 2024 with increases of up to 6.65%

   MADRID, 30 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (Mitma) has resolved this Saturday to update the tolls of state-owned highways under administrative concession for 2024, in such a way that, as of January 1, rates will rise by 5% and 6.65%, depending on the specific conditions of each concession.

The ministry led by Óscar Puente has outlined that the update of the rates that users bear on the AP-51, AP-61, AP-6, AP-53, AP-66, AP-7 Alicante-Cartagena, AP-7 Málaga-Guadiaro, AP-68 and AP-71, AP-9 and AP-46 has been approved through a ministerial order, at the proposal of the Government Delegation to the National Toll Highway Concessionaire Companies.

Specifically, the 2024 rate review has meant an increase of 6.65% for the AP-46 and AP-7 Alicante-Cartagena; 6.55% for AP-9; 5.12% for AP-68; 5.07% for the AP-6, AP-51, AP-61, AP-53, AP-71 and AP-7 Málaga-Guadiaro, and 5% for the AP-66.

However, the ministry has explained that, if the rate review were to occur without the existing subsidies, the increases would increase between 8% and 10.5%.

The department has indicated that the application of this measure has meant a saving of more than 33 million euros for users in 2023, while the amount represented by the public subsidy in 2024 is estimated at 30 million euros.

In its explanatory statement, the agency has argued that the authorized increase responds, fundamentally, to the growth of the consumer price index, as contemplated in article 77 of Law 14/2000, and to the extraordinary and temporary measures approved at the end of 2022 to limit the increase in tolls to 4% in 2023.

Likewise, the institution has indicated that last year a subsidy was enabled to mitigate the effects of high inflation, since an increase of between 8.4% and 9.5% should have been applied, and the obligation was established to eliminate said subsidy at the end of 2026, that is, to "pass it on to the user in a phased manner over a period of three years, as well as, therefore, to provide the necessary budget items for this."

"It must be taken into account that the increase in rates is cumulative, hence the need to pass back on to the user the difference that was not paid in 2023, although little by little, so that it can be assumed under better conditions by citizens," he said. the ministry noted in the statement.

On the other hand, the Executive has indicated that it has been decided not to raise the tolls of the highways managed by SEITT, which due to financial problems reverted to the State, which have not been raised since 2019, when they were reduced by 30% on average.

The ministry has in turn claimed the "policy of subsidizing tolls to reduce the costs borne by users who use these roads on a regular basis" and has cited examples, such as the AP-71, AP-46, AP-6, AP-7 Málaga - Guadiaro and AP-7 Alicante-Cartagena, in which discounts for regularity or reduced rates were established in different time slots since its commissioning.

In that sense, he has also brought up, among others, the bonuses approved in 2021 for the AP-9, which to date have saved users more than 315 million euros, while, after the investiture agreements , these bonuses for regularity in the AP-9 "will be increased even further from 2024, to which the new bonuses to be made in the AP-53 will be added."

For its part, the Executive has recalled that, in some cases these bonuses have been agreed with the regional governments, which contribute financially to the measure.