Finance Minister María Jesús Montero suggested this Wednesday that the Government is preparing to extend aid to autonomous communities and municipalities until 2023 to encourage a minimum 30% reduction in public transport under its jurisdiction.
In the government audit session held at the Congress of Deputies, the Deputy GDP Idoia Sagastizabal He asked the Finance Minister to extend this measure until 31 December to support regional and local public transport, which came into effect on 1 September. Montero declined to give a strong response to the possible inclusion of this state subsidy in the anti-crisis royal decree, which the Government must approve before the end of the year to decide which measures can be extended to next year and under what conditions. But the minister suggested that this 30% bonus in favor of autonomies and town halls could be extended: “Most of us share the diagnosis of the promoted measures regarding free public transport,” Montero said.
“And if we are all of the view that this is a policy that should be promoted across all administrations, we will need to contribute so that these measures can be deepened and continued,” the minister said. “We’ll see when we bring the royal injunction to this House,” Montero said, before calling for “an appeal to all administrations” for expansion from the 30% that funded them if necessary. Specify a 50% final discount for public transport users, as some autonomous communities and town halls do.
The PNV assistant encouraged the Government to extend this 30% subsidy and announced that the Basque Government would increase the discount for users to 50%. In addition, Sagastizábal warned the minister that expanding this measure could “hardly support” approval of the norm when the PNV is put to a vote if the anti-crisis measure is not included in the royal decree. at the Congress of Deputies.
Catalonia’s main municipal, metropolitan and regional authorities have shown their willingness to add the public transport discount to their respective mandates by up to 50% if the Government increases its share of 30%.