Transfer of buses: the Ministry of Transport and the CABA will have a new meeting

In a new day of negotiations, the technical teams of the Ministry of Transportation of the Nation and the Government of the City of Buenos Aires advanced in the details of the bus service transfer. The legal, technical and economic aspects were the issues to be discussed related to the transfer of the 32 lines that circulate exclusively in the CABA.

Following on from the talks that began in February of last year, the meeting, which took place in the offices of the Ministère des Transports, aimed to agree on a more equitable and federal distribution of resources for automobile passenger transport.

The head of the advisory cabinet, Facundo Benegas; the Undersecretary for Economic and Financial Transport Policy, Carlos Alfredo Vittor; the adviser in the area of ​​​​the secretary of transport management, Sebastián Álvarez; and the Interjurisdictional Articulation Secretariat’s Area Advisor, Cintia Morales. The representatives of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires were accompanied by the Undersecretary for Mobility Planning, Lucila Capelli, and the councilors Mariana Parera and Claudia Torres.

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Thus, a new chapter in the matter that began in February 2021 trying to comply with Law 26,740, Article 2 of the year 2012, which ratifies the transfer to the city of Buenos Aires of the underground transport services and the premetro; automobile and tramway transport, the supply of which corresponds exclusively to its territory, and the transfer of which has not been carried out in full.

However, the issue involves a much broader discussion, such as the scope of CABA’s autonomy and its funding. Among his arguments, Alberto Fernandez describes the price difference between CABA tickets compared to other provinces and argues that the City is increasing its autonomy but at the same time it is not self-financing. Another of those who criticized this difference in the tickets was the governor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales.

This gave rise to a new point of conflict and tension with the executive in Buenos Aires, especially since it emerged that the Nation’s Ministry of Transport intended to cut 14,600 million pesos subsidies currently allocated to some 32 bus lines. .

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In the ranks of the head of the government of Buenos Aires, they understand that the decision of the Ministry of Transport is part of “one more attack” against the capital. At Uspallata, they agree the subsidy cuts are part of a strategy to polish the image of their political boss in the nascent race to 2023.

Fernández thus confirmed and redoubled the confrontation with the management of Buenos Aires de Larreta, whose government secretary, Jorge Macri, has calculated that the possible withdrawal of subsidies “is a decision taken by the government and will involve an increase”. Without the subsidies, he estimated, the rate would rise to double or triple the current level. And he attributed the official initiative to the fact that the government of Buenos Aires is “of another political costume”.

The national government maintains that the government of Buenos Aires must control, regulate and manage the resources of the 34 “exclusive to its territory” bus lines, out of a total of 135 that share a route between CABA and Greater Buenos Aires (GBA), and that this criterion has been raised by several governors and mayors.

The conflict over the subsidy to urban groups is another chapter in the tax fight between the Nation and the CABA, in which the City maintains that already in 2020 the national government reduced the joint participation of Buenos Aires from 3.25 to 1, 40%, plus a post for the payment of the police assignment, which makes a total close to 1.75%, against 25% that CABA pays to the national collection.

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