It is a hypothesis but it is making its way in the corridors of MIT, the Ministry of Transport led by the pentastellato Danilo Toninelli: we are moving towards a block on motorway tariffs on the A24 and A25 (Rome-L'Aquila-Teramo and Torano-Pescara) . However, the block on tolls, various journalistic sources report, will also affect Autostrade per l'Italia- ASPI (involved in the collapse of the Genoa bridge) e Park Road (A24-A25). The price increases requested by the operators, according to rumours, fluctuate between 6,3% for Rav, the Aspi company that manages the Valle d'Aosta motorways, 5,6% for the A24 and A25, 1,8% for the Naples ring road, to 1,1% for the Tyrrhenian motorway, also owned by Aspi, which would have asked for a toll adjustment for 2019 of 0,8% for its main network.
For some concessions (it is not yet known which ones) minimum adjustments should be made and the managers have in any case assured that from now on the relationship between tariffs, price and investments.
The request for a moratorium came from Strada dei Parchi (SdP). The company appealed to Toninelli "to prevent Anas from passing on users of the A24-A25 the cost of an additional 73 million euros relating to interest on the two installments of the concession fee, which must be suspended to allow sterilization of tariffs and avoid the increase from 1 January”. This is what we read in the letter that Sdp sent to MIT.
In practice, the company has asked to postpone by ten years, to 2028, the installments due to the State in the next two years for the concession, equal to 112 million euros, and thus compensate for the missed increases. The ministry would have given the go-ahead, but everything stalled again, says the Toto group, because Anas demands 6% annual interest instead of the legal rate (0,8% for 2019).
In the letter sent to the ministry, CEO Cesare Ramadori explains to Minister Toninelli that in the last few days "we had reached, with your decisive intervention, the agreement with ANAS SpA for the deferment to 2028 of the payment of the 2018 and 2019 installments which we owe of the concession, so as to be able to use these resources, already set aside and restricted by our Company, in order to "sterilize" in the next 3 months, as happened in the October-December 2018 quarter, the toll increases of the A24 and A25 approved by the Government at the end of 2017 and those envisaged by the Convention in force for 2019".
”Based on the indications that we know your Dicastery has provided to ANAS SpA to this agreement - the motorway company still writes in the text reported by Ansa - the same has however added the claim to apply on the value of the deferred installments, equal to 112.000.000 .XNUMX euros, an interest rate of 6% per annum instead of the legal rate, as also indicated by MIT. This exorbitant claim, which would cost the community an additional 73.000.000 euros, contrasts with what happened in 2017, when by law (L 97/2017) Parliament authorized us to defer the payment of another 2 ANAS installments of identical value (112.000.000. 228 euros) to finance a part of the so-called "anti-scaling" urgent interventions, recognizing only the application of interest based on the legal rate. We consider all this unacceptable and the result of a commendable speculative calculation. And this also considering the effort that your Ministry and our Company are implementing, pending the approval of the new PEF as required by Law 2012/XNUMX, not to unload on the users of the motorways we manage and on the economies of the areas concerned , burdensome and further tariff increases”.
"To demonstrate our total willingness to honor the commitments agreed in this sense with your Chief of Staff, today we sent ANAS and your Ministry by certified mail, the texts we have already signed of these agreements in which we we undertake not to apply any increase in tolls on the A24 and A25 until next 31 March compared to the rates currently applied. Therefore, we ask you to intervene, in the few hours that separate us from the entry into force of the 2019 tariffs, to resolve the issue, also in consideration of the supervisory role that MIT exercises towards ANAS SpA", concludes Ramadori. Time is running out as the new tolls are due to kick in on Tuesday 1 January.
