The Municipality of Montevideo (IMM) announced that as of January 5 the price of the capital transport ticket will increase. Criticism was not long in coming as a fuel drop was announced some 5 days ago.
In the midst of the controversy that “if the fuel goes down, so should the ticket” the director of Mobility of the commune, Pablo Inthamoussu spoke about it.
“It is the worst crisis in the entire history of transportation,” he explained. And he argued that there are “various” reasons for the Municipality to increase the price of the urban ticket.
The government previously announced the drop of $6 for diesel, but Inthamoussu explained that fuel for transportation is subsidized and is independent of the pump price.
Thanks to this subsidy, the ticket maintains the number it currently has because otherwise it would be $10 above the current value, according to the information provided by the chief.
According to it, the Metropolitan Transportation System lost 220 million tickets during the last three years and that has had a strong impact. During these years there was extreme assistance from the government and the mayor’s office ”he said.
The losses were valued at USD 220 million for the tickets and it is one of the reasons why the ticket will increase 6.7% from Thursday.
Likewise, Inthamoussu affirms that the increase is below inflation.
“The entire transportation system included in an economy where prices rise” force the price to rise, he explained. Among them, inflation. “We cannot control it. From time to time we have to update those prices,” said Inthamoussu.
And he added “we cannot sustain the costs of the system with resources that do not exist. We have to make decisions that allow us to balance.”
Taking care of the most vulnerable sectors of the population from the social and economic point of view, there will be no price adjustment for category A retirees and pensioners and the ABC ticket.
STM CARD AND CASH
If the ticket is paid in cash or with an STM card, there will be a slight difference in the final amounts.
STM – 1 hour $42, 2 hours $62, Downtown $29, Zonal $20, Retired cat. At $11, Retired cat. B $19, Student cat. A $23, Student cat B $32.20, Metro Combination $66.
CASH – Common $52 -1 hour $52, 2 hours $78, Differential $78, Downtown $39, Zonal $27, Retired cat. At $14, Retired cat. B $23, Metro Combination $66.
Due to the controversies presented, the commune seeks to establish an annual rate but “a policy from a few years ago has come into play where we are trying to set the rate for a whole year, the uncertainty is great, there are subsidy mechanisms that are very important. In this case, the diesel subsidy allows that stability, that predictability. We are also waiting for some announcements that have been made about what is going to happen with this subsidy”, indicated Inthamoussu.
