Today marks the fifth consecutive day of collective strike carried out by the Business Chamber of Passenger Transport (CEAP), the Business Chamber of Urban Transport of Buenos Aires (CETUBA) and the Chamber of Transport of the Province of Buenos Aires (CTPBA).
The measure of force affects more than 100 transport lines in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA), as the sector assured that the collective strike It will remain, apparently, until they are paid the total of a debt of 17 billion pesos.
In this sense, the collective strike is maintained, during daytime hours, with frequencies reduced by 30%, while, at night, the transport service is not provided. The restriction applies between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. the following day.
Meanwhile, the negotiations between the Ministry of Transport and the Buenos Aires Government continue, since the ministry assured that they will not be responsible for the payment of subsidies that correspond to the lines of the City.
From the ministry, they explained: “payments are being made on account of the debt with the urban passenger transport companies of the AMBA; however, those that have jurisdiction in the City of Buenos Aires will not receive that payment”, since the Buenos Aires Government “has not yet taken charge” of their part, which makes it difficult to lift the measure of force.
The Buenos Aires Government must subsidize 51% of the payment of 32 bus lines; however, this year said percentage decreased, even, there were months in which the transfer of payments was not made, as explained by the Undersecretary of Economic and Financial Policy of Transport, Carlos Vittor.
“We told them that we needed to recover $2,047 million from the first semester and establish a monthly payment schedule associated with the costs of the system and that gave a total of $11,600 million by the end of the year, including the $2,047 million from the first semester.”
And he continued: “The answer we had came on Friday of last week, indicating that they were offering $1.1 billion for each of the months from July to September, that is, They were offering us $3.3 billion and we had a quarter left, in their scheme, to negotiate. Therefore, we told them that we did not accept the proposal that they made us”.
What does the City Government say?
Although the Buenos Aires government recognizes that there is a collaboration agreement for the payment of subsidies, it assured that, from the Nation, “they were rejecting our latest proposals. Now, we made a new one, but the non-compliance with the payments that the national government is making is something that the City has nothing to do with.”
And they added: “there is no debt, because we do not have any payment responsibility, we do not have any liquidation. What is signed is a collaboration agreement in which an amount is established. For there to be a debt, there must be a settlement in which we are responsible. We politically agree on collaboration agreements every three months or six months, depending on the year and the moment”.
