Civic Front denounces “festival of hypocrisy” in the debate on the ex-SCUT – Politics

This Friday, the Frente Cívica association denounced the “festival of hypocrisy” in the parliamentary debate on the elimination of tolls in the former SCUT, considering that it had overshadowed the more pressing fundamental issue of the ruinous rents paid to private concessionaires.

On Thursday, parliament generally approved the PS bill to eliminate tolls on the ex-SCUT with votes in favor of the socialists, Chega, BE, PCP, Livre and PAN. In the votes on this project, PSD and CDS-PP voted against and IL abstained.

This Friday, in a statement, the Civic Front says it watched the parliamentary debate with “disbelief and concern” on the elimination of tolls on the former SCUT, Public-Private Road Partnerships, for not having addressed the rents paid by the State to concessionaires .

“Parliament served us a festival of hypocrisy, which culminated in the approval of a carefully prepared measure so as not to pinch the rents paid to private parties who captured the State in the ex-SCUT business. An Assembly that spends hours discussing 400 million euros and does not touch the 800 million delivered every year to concessionaires, it is completely beholden to these interests”, highlights the president of Frente Cívica, Paulo Morais, quoted in the note.

According to the association, the road Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) celebrated in Portugal since the mid-1990s and during the first decade of the 21st century are a “ruinous business, which must be extinguished”.

“If it is true that the abolition of tolls could represent a reduction in public revenue of up to a maximum of 400 million euros, it is also true that the State is unduly paying concessionaires twice that amount, that is, 800 million, all the years”, is mentioned in the note.

The Civic Front considers that the extinction of this business would not only allow ex-SCUT users to stop paying tolls, but, at the same time, it would also raise 400 million euros annually for the public treasury.

The association recalls that “due to its inequity and enormous budgetary burden, the reform of road PPPs was included in the Troika’s rescue plan in 2011, and was the target of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry of the Assembly of the Republic, which recommended its review or extinction “.

However, says the Civic Front, “even after two renegotiation processes — in 2010, by a PS Government, and from 2012, by a PSD/CDS Government — these concessions continue to represent a drain on public resources “.

The association recalls that the State Budget (OE) for 2024 foresees a total of charges for road PPP in the order of 10 thousand and 800 million euros until the end of the concessions, in 2040, a number that “contrasts with the real value, calculated by Eurostat.

The Civic Front argues that the State should extinguish the PPPs, compensating the concessionaires at the updated value of the assets, calculated by Eurostat.

“These savings should now be reflected in the State Budget for 2025, or in a possible amending Budget for 2024, which should include a reduction in expected gross charges, from the approximately 1200 million budgeted this Friday, to values ​​around 400 million”, according to the Civic Front.