The freezing of tolls in 2015 will cost 500 MILLION EUR to the users of the highways – Franceinfo

The freezing of tariffs of tolls of highways in 2015 cost is € 500 million additional users during the next 20 years. Bad news announced by the regulator highways that restarts the debate on the relevance of the agreement signed by the State this year.

• BD (with AFP)
• Published on 07/12/2016 at 09:44

© Maxppp

The Arafer – the regulator – has done his calculations : “The users will pay 500 million euros (tolls) over the duration of the concessions for the next 20 years to compensate for the freezing of tariffs in 2015,” explained its president Bernard Novel, during a press conference.

This freezing of tariffs of tolls, decided by the government at the end of several months of standoff with the dealers, however, was supposed to restore the balance of the contracts, while the competition Authority had reported the “pension” these corporations since the privatisation of 2006, that challenged the interested parties.

The government had initially said that the freeze of 2015 would not be compensated. It will eventually be smoothed over the years 2019 to 2023, via the “a toll increase than would normally be expected at February 1, 2015 : +0,23% +0,82% according to dealers“, details the Arafer. It should be understood that, as of 1 February 2017, the prices of motorway tolls, French will increase by 0.76% on average.

The agreements concluded in April, 2015 between the State and the dealers, expected “re-balance the contracts in the interest of the users and of the State“, would no doubt have received a negative opinion from the Arafer, which is not restricted while the rail sector. In this first annual report on the accounts of the concessionaires of motorways, the Arafer indicates that “the dividends paid in 2015 by the dealers has strongly increased to reach 3.3 billion euros (+127,5%), an amount higher than the net income of the sector which represents 2.2 billion euros“.

The Association of the French companies of motorways (Asfa) has not wanted to comment on this report, and the department of Ecology, which depends on the secretariat of State for Transport, had not responded to interview requests. At the end of 2014, the minister of Ecology, Ségolène Royal, was mounted in the niche-according to a report of the competition Authority which referred to the “pension” these corporations since the privatisation of 2006, a figure disputed by the interested parties. At the height of the crisis, a cancellation pure and simple of the concession contracts had even been mentioned.