We have agreement. The Government and the carriers of the National Road Transport Committee (CNTC) have finally agreed on a bonus of 0.20 euros per liter or kilo of fuel and direct aid will be given to the 450 million of euros, two measures that, as a whole, add up to an injection of 1,050 million euros. Around two in the morning on Friday, the Executive and the carriers, meeting since 11:30 in the morning the previous day, have reached this principle of understanding.
This agreement could put an end to more than 10 days of lockouts that have been supported, mainly, by the self-employed and SMEs. On the other hand, the fact that the organizers of the strike, the Platform in Defense of the Transport of Goods by Road, have not attended the meeting, poses a still complicated scenario.
“The agreement is a crumb,” says the president of the carriers calling the strike, who warns that the protest will continue until this platform is received by the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez. “They would have to drop more than 60 cents for it to be enough. The issue of the price of transport is not being touched upon, which is the most important thing, to be able to cover operating costs, but the employers are not interested in this,” she has pointed out.
The discount of 20 cents per liter will mean an estimated saving of around 700 euros per truck per month and will have a valid from April 1 to June 30, extendable depending on the evolution of the markets. Of the 20 cents of agreed reduction, 15 cents will run by the State and 5 cents by the oil companies, according to the agreement to which it has had access the Economist.
With regard to direct aid worth 450 million, carriers of both goods and passengers will receive the following amounts for each vehicle: 1,250 euros for trucks, 950 euros for buses, 500 euros for vans, 300 vehicles for taxis, VTCs and ambulances.
During the morning of Thursday, the three ministers, accompanied by other senior officials from the Ministry of Transport, listened to the demands of the sector and the proposals to improve and finalize the package of 500 million euros in bonuses that had been presented to them at the meeting of the Monday. Astic, one of the federations called to the meeting, even asked to raise this initial amount to 1,000 million euros.
After a two-hour break, at five in the afternoon they resumed the meeting to put black on white in the amounts to be lowered for each liter of fuel refueled by carriers. As confirmed to the Economist sources present at the meeting, during the day several figures were considered that followed those of other European countries that have already approved measures, as is the case of France, Italy or Portugal.
On the tax side there will be no variations. The Government maintains for days that the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons that is applied to professional diesel is at the minimum allowed by the directive, since carriers are returned 4.9 cents per liter up to a maximum of 50,000 kilometers per year. On the VAT sideIn addition to the fact that European regulations do not allow a reduced rate to be applied to fuel and, therefore, its reduction would imply a reduction in the general tax rate, the professional transport sector deducts these amounts, so a reduction in this tax would not imply a real benefit to them.
The expiration and grace periods of ICO credits are extended
In addition to these measures, it has been agreed to extend the expiration and grace periods for ICO credits up to 8-10 years and the creation of a new line of credit guaranteed by the Official Credit Institute with a 12-month grace period.
In this sense, the green light has also been given to the elaboration before July 31 of a draft Law for the application of the principles of the Food Chain Law to the transport sector as well as for the limitation of subcontracting; the monthly return of professional gas oil to transport and speeding up the return to transporters by the Treasury of the sanitary cent.
Fishing returns to work
While the freight and passenger transport sector by road is still looking for a solution, the fishermen decided last Wednesday night to call off the strike and go back to fishing after the meeting held with the minister of the industry, Luis Planas.
The Spanish fishing sector, which had decided to leave the fleet moored in port since last Friday due to the rise in diesel, will make “a great effort going out to fish at a loss”, according to the National Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds (FNCP), when be aware “of the need to bring basic food”, showing their confidence in the measures proposed by the Ministry.
“The Government, in the rule that will be approved next Tuesday, will include support to limit the scope of price increases in relation to diesel on operating accounts,” Minister Planas assured at the end of the meeting, who stressed that the “intention is to limit the impact of the cost of diesel as much as possible”.
The measures, agreed this past dawn, jointly meet two main objectives:
– Immediately reduce the price of fuel used by carriers.
– Quickly and decisively support companies in the sector, including direct help lines and mechanisms that guarantee their liquidity.
There will be social measures aimed at guaranteeing social protection for the self-employed, measures that continue to advance to rebalance the existing asymmetries between the actors in the road freight transport sector, to improve the position and competitiveness of this sector.
The aforementioned fuel bonus that transport companies will receive is included in the first group, the agreement of which includes the provision that the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) monitor its implementation.
Within the second group, there are the following measures, some previously mentioned.
– Direct aid amounting to 450 million euros for freight and passenger transport companies depending on the type of vehicle.
– Extension of the term of expiration of the credits guaranteed by the ICO up to 8-10 years, and an extension of the grace period of the credits guaranteed by the ICO of 6 months, as an immediate application measure.
– A new credit line will be established for the sector guaranteed by the ICO with a 12-month grace period.
– The monthly return of professional fuel will be established from April, compared to the quarterly period currently in force, and the implementation of a monthly early return system with annual regularization.
Within the set of social measures, aimed at guaranteeing social protection for the self-employed, the budget allocation for aid for abandoning the transport profession will be doubled, going from 10 to 20 million euros in 2022.
Manuel Hernández leads from YouTube to the yellow vests of Spanish transport
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