The Government has approved this Tuesday a new aid package to respond to the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine. The royal decree-law approved yesterday by the Council of Ministers includes various measures to alleviate the cost of transport that affect citizens and professionals, which are grouped into discounts or free public transport, fuel aid for road transport, agriculture or fishing and price freezes for several toll roads.
Free commuter and medium-distance travel throughout Spain for regular users and long-distance bus travel also for recurring users, as well as a 50% discount on Avant trains, had also already been announced.
The Government has also approved this Tuesday an extension of the 30% discount to regional transport for the year 2023, but that it will pay only to the autonomous communities that commit to extending the discount to 50% of the price. Thus, a reduction of at least 50% in the price of multi-journey passes and tickets for collective urban and interurban public transport will be promoted during the first semester of 2023, financed 30% by the State and 20% by regional and local administrations.
The new subsidies are linked to the commitment of the autonomous communities and local entities to implement and complement the state discounts so that, at least, the price of the land transport services of their competence for regular travelers is reduced by half.
Unlike what happened in the last four months, during which it was optional for communities and town halls to offer the additional 20% discount, now only 30% will be applied if these entities finance that 20% discount. Therefore, in all regions where this measure is applied, the total reduction will be 50%.
This initiative means reducing, for example, the prices of the Madrid transport pass, which allows you to take all public transport in the Community, and even in neighboring territories, including the metro, urban and interurban or commuter buses.
Thus, the State will allocate 380 million euros to cover the cost of the 30% reduction in the price of season tickets and multi-trip tickets, so that the autonomous communities and local entities must finance, from their own budgets, the remaining amount, to compensate land transport companies and operators.
The regulation includes flexibility mechanisms for the application of the measure during the month of January, such as the possibility that, if the effective implementation occurs between January 1 and February 1, 2023, a procedure can be enabled to return or compensate the corresponding amounts for the purchase of multi-trip tickets, excluding round trips, which would not have been able to benefit from the reduction.
For example, the administration may add to the end of the period (starting in July) the same number of days or weeks that did not have a 50% bonus in January.
The aid will be assigned to the autonomous communities and local entities in accordance with the objective criteria of demand, supply or population that are determined by ministerial order, with the same methodology used in the management of direct aid to land, urban public transport and interurban established in royal decree-law 11/2022, of June 25.
The royal decree law also includes the particularities that will be applied in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands, where collective land public transport will be free for regular travelers in 2023. Specifically, it regulates the capacity of these autonomous communities to establish the recurrence conditions for the free subscriptions and multi-trip tickets that they deem necessary, such as the conditions of sale and use, validity and expiration of the travel tickets or limitations on the number of discounted tickets, among other aspects.
The Government will end on December 31 with the mandatory discount of 20 cents per liter of fuel -gasoline and diesel- for all consumers. Although individuals will no longer enjoy this discount when it comes to refueling, there will be fuel discounts for professional road transport, farmers, shipping companies and fishermen. Thus, it will be maintained for trucks and other vehicles until March, from which date it will be reduced to 10 cents in the second quarter, without prejudice to monitoring the measure.
The new aid package approved by the Government maintains the bonus for the road transport sector, both light and heavy, and regardless of the propulsion energy used, by including aid for both diesel and natural gas vehicles.
The new aid application system will allow the amount of the discount to reach the carrier in its entirety, unlike the fuel aid regime currently in force, managed directly by the oil and gas stations.
In the case of gas-powered fleets, a compensation of 27 cents is expected until March and 14 cents during the second quarter, given the special circumstances faced by the gas price in this recent stage.
The text includes two mechanisms to calculate and pay aid of 20 and 10 cents per liter to carriers depending on whether or not they are entitled to a partial refund of the tax on hydrocarbons.
The beneficiaries of the professional diesel refund will receive it at the end of each month, together with the partial refund of the hydrocarbons tax, and it will be calculated based on the liters consumed and paid with their cards, among other systems.
Public passenger transport companies by bus and taxi, and road goods transport vehicles with a maximum authorized mass of more than 7.5, which now receive 4.9 cents in reimbursement per liter consumed, in a monthly payment, will obtain together to this the bonus to the fuel. In this way, the Tax Agency is attributed the competence to manage the aid applications and all the actions for their processing.
On the other hand, a direct aid system is established for companies and the self-employed who do not benefit from the return of professional diesel, which must be requested through the Tax Agency between February 1 and March 31, and which will be paid in a single payment. The bonus is calculated by estimating consumption, by type of vehicle, in a period of six months from January 1.
The aid for vehicles will range from 3,690 euros for the transport of heavy goods to LPG, CNG or LNG, and 300 euros for vehicles with driver hire (VTC).
For farmers there will also be direct aid of up to 20 cents per liter, through the refund of the special hydrocarbons tax, a measure that has a cost of 240 million euros. For fishermen, 120 million will be granted in direct aid.
For regular maritime transport of public interest under regional and state jurisdiction, a subsidy of 0.137 cents has been approved for each mile sailed per ton of gross tonnage, with a duration of six months, extendable for another six. In this case, it is established as a requirement that in the operation of the line the ship exclusively uses fuels with low sulfur content in its main engines.
The Government has approved limiting to 4% the increase in tolls on eleven toll highways in 2023 to mitigate the 8.4% increase in rates due to the evolution of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the effect of the revisions extraordinary in three of them, as reported by the Ministry of Transport.
Likewise, in line with the Government’s objective of curbing the inflationary spiral and supporting households, it has been decided to freeze the motorway tolls managed by SEITT, which due to financial problems reverted to the State.
To this end, it articulates a mechanism to contain at 4% the increase in the 2023 rates that users bear on the AP-51, AP-61, AP-53, AP-66, AP-7 Alicante-Cartagena, AP-7 motorways. Malaga-Guadiaro, AP-68 and AP-71, AP-9, AP-6 and AP-46.
Between 2023 and 2026, the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda will subsidize part of the income that the concessionaires will stop receiving next year due to the containment of the increase in tolls for which a line of 23.3 million euros is enabled for finance the reduction of the rate increase in 2023-
The AP-46 Alto de Las Pedrizas-Málaga and the Autopista del Atlántico AP-9 must also apply an extraordinary revision of the tariff to generate funds with which to compensate the works carried out to improve the infrastructures and that implied modifying the conditions of the concessions .
