The Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz, addressed the challenges that his ministry will have during the government of President Gabriel Boric and ruled out the idea of reducing the tax on diesel, which is rather in the presidential program to raise the tax and also He referred to whether an increase in fares will materialize, which have not increased since October 2019.
Juan Carlos Muñoz has become a recognized figure on social networks for using his bicycle to get around and defending the use of sustainable and environmentally friendly transport. And one of his main focuses is the decentralization of transport networks and extrapolate the tasks of his ministry to other regions.
In his first interview on broadcast television, the head of portfolio commented to CNNChile, that during the next four years, it will be “key in this period of Gabriel Boric’s presidency to be able to move forward, especially with a very strong focus on regions. Focusing beyond the city of Santiago, which traditionally attracts so much of the ministry’s energy.”
“There is a very important gap in the transportation system between Santiago and the cities of the regions, which sometimes the people of Santiago do not realize, but we need to be able to lift the transportation system much more for those who live outside the capital,” he explained.
In the same way and on the other hand, he calls to calibrate the use of private transport, “there is too much congestion, the cities are clotted with cars”, and that speaks of a trajectory as a country, where “every time more and more” vehicles are sold. .
“And that is a problem, because it makes our cities less sustainable,” so “we have to transform it into more forceful actions that allow us to promote both collective and non-motorized transport, because we are no longer just a problem of congestion, but also a crisis of climate change”.
In other aspects, consulted about the gasoline tax, he pointed out that it is on the Executive’s programmatic grid “to raise the tax on diesel, because what we need is to discourage the use of fossil fuels,” said the minister, ruling out any compatibility with take into account the proposal presented by parliamentarians from the National Renewal to eliminate it for one year. a specific tax on gasoline.
“However, it is important to recognize that there are more opportune or less opportune moments for a measure like that,” he added, in relation to the tax hike. Along these lines, Muñoz maintained that “today we are with a very high oil, we are with economic conditions in the country that are complex, but I believe, in my opinion at least, we must recognize the total economic reasonableness of the program proposal. and find the best time for that”.
“Now, if you ask me if it is a good idea to reduce the tax on diesel, I think it is not a very good idea,” he stated in the aforementioned medium.
On the other hand, the idea of raising the price of the tickets “we have not decided yet (…) It is not something that depends exclusively on me,” replied the portfolio manager. But he assures that “there is a panel of experts that suggests raising the rate” of public transport.
“Since October 2019 -as is known throughout the country-, these rates have been frozen and it is because, of course, the impacts of a rate increase are not only financial for the system, but also have economic impacts for the families, they have political impacts, they have social impacts, and, therefore, it is an equation that has to be analyzed far beyond my portfolio,” Muñoz said.
