On Thursday, the parliament approved in general terms the PS bill to eliminate tolls on former SCUTs with votes in favor from the socialists, Chega, BE, PCP, Livre, and PAN. In the votes on this bill, PSD and CDS-PP voted against and IL abstained.

Today, in a press release, the Frente Cívica says it witnessed with "incredulity and concern the parliamentary debate" on the elimination of tolls on former SCUTs, Public-Private Highway Partnerships, for not having addressed the rents paid by the State to the concessionaires.

"The Parliament served us a festival of hypocrisy, which culminated in the approval of a measure carefully prepared so as not to affect the rents paid to the private parties that captured the State in the former SCUT business. An Assembly that spends hours discussing 400 million euros and does not touch the 800 million delivered every year to the concessionaires is totally subservient to these interests", stresses the president of the Frente Cívica, Paulo Morais, quoted in the note.

According to the association, the Public-Private Highway Partnerships (PPPs) signed in Portugal since the mid-1990s and during the first decade of the 21st century are a "ruinous business that must be terminated".

"If it is true that the elimination of tolls may represent a decrease in public revenue of up to 400 million euros, it is also certain that the State is unduly paying the concessionaires double that amount, or 800 million, every year", the note states.

The Frente Cívica believes that the termination of this business would allow not only the users of the former SCUTs to stop paying tolls but also, at the same time, would still collect 400 million euros per year for the public purse.

The association recalls that "due to its unfairness and enormous budgetary weight, the reform of the 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 revision or termination".

However, says the Frente Cívica, "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 expenses with PPPs in the order of 10 billion 800 million euros until the end of the concessions, in 2040, a number that "contrasts with the real value, calculated by Eurostat.

The Frente Cívica advocates that the State should terminate the PPPs, indemnifying the concessionaires in the updated value of the assets, calculated by Eurostat.

"This saving should be reflected in the State Budget for 2025, or in a possible amending Budget for 2024, which should contemplate a reduction in the gross expenses foreseen, from the approximately 1200 million budgeted today, to values around 400 million", according to the Frente Cívica.

Leia Também: Plataforma considera reposição das Scut medida de justiça para o interior (Portuguese version)