During an interview on Blu Radio, the Minister of Transportation, Guillermo Reyes, announced that in 2023 the prices of the tolls administered by Invías and ANI will not rise.
(What are you exposed to if you don’t pay a toll: is it possible not to?)
“No, there will be no increase. It is a decision of the president. Currently, the ANI has 113 and the Invias 30 tolls”said.
The minister also clarified that the rates will be frozen for national and non-departmental tolls.
In an interview with El Tiempo, Reyes had previously said that the transport ministry was working on an administrative act to not increase the prices of some tolls in the country.
However, what is not collected by this means will be recovered with the collection of the road valuation tax from 2024.
(If you will be traveling during this time, prepare your pocket: the most expensive tolls).
According to Minister Reyes, the government has the legal power to charge valuation for highways, but no one has done so.
He added that the only thing that was needed to freeze toll rates is for the Ministry of Finance to give its endorsement and the resources that are not collected due to the non-increase in tolls, which would be approximately 500,000 million pesos, which would come out of the budget and which will be returned with what they recover with the valuation.
The Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, confirmed to Portafolio that the ministry under his charge has already given the respective endorsement to materialize the objective of not increasing tolls this year.
(Colombia is among the countries with the highest number of tolls in Latin America).
Likewise, Minister Reyes told El Tiempo that his portfolio is working on the possibility of changing the concept of differentials for tolls so that it is always applied. For example, a person who lives 200 to 500 meters away does not pay, whether they are poor or rich, but if they are between 1 and 10 kilometers they would pay 20 percent and between 10 and 15 kilometers, 40 percent, to say the least.
“The first one who disagrees with the tolls and has wanted to put an end to the toll issue is President Petro and that is the task he has given us”he added.
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