José Apolinário, an Algarvian deputy elected by the PS, sent a letter today to the president of Infraestruturas de Portugal demanding that, like what will happen with the Marão Tunnel, the tolls on Via do Infante should also be reduced by 30 percent.
In your letter, the Sul Informação had access, Apolinário recalls the statements of António Ramalho, president of IP, to the "Jornal de Negócios" last Friday, in which that person in charge announced a reduction of 30 percent on the «value of the concession contract in the tolls to be implemented» in that infrastructure in the North of the country.
"Because, certainly, in the matter of tolls, we won't have double standards, it's a good case to say that the principle of acceptance of reductions valid in Marão will certainly also be valid here in Caldeirão!", adds the Socialist elected deputy to the his letter, also sent to the Minister of Economy.
Apolinário begins by remembering that the PS deputies – at the time still candidates – had assumed «the commitment to defend the 50 percent reduction» on the price of tolls on the A22.
Now, "without abandoning" this proposal, the parliamentarians demand that, "in the immediate term, the principle of reduction applicable in the Marão Tunnel should also be extended to the Via do Infante".
In addition to invoking the need for equal treatment, José Apolinário stresses that, «how can we demonstrate in a study developed by us, a reduction in the value of tolls on Via do Infante has a neutral effect on revenue (due to the effect of price-supply elasticity)”, so such a reduction would not even represent a drop in revenue.
On the other hand, he points out, the reduction "is of the most elementary justice, from the outset by the accident rate on the EN125", "because the announced requalification was only punctual and still to be done" and also because "a very substantial part of the Via do Infant to have been financed by community funds».
At the end of his letter to the chairman of Infrastructures of Portugal, deputy José Apolinário asks what is the “availability and contractually possible timetable for your company to develop procedures with the concessionaire for a 50 percent reduction in the value of tolls on Via do Infante ».
Finally, the Algarve parliamentarian asks what is the «justification or confirmation of the announced reduction of 30 percent on concession values in other regions of the country, when the whole country knows the correctness of the positions of the Algarve and its people, that is, Will the announced reduction of 30 percent on the value of the concession in the Marão Tunnel also be, and immediately, applied here from Caldeirão?”
Comments