National deputy Victoria Tolosa Paz demanded that national government allocate resources to the maintenance of routes 12 and 14 before proceeding with new tolls in Misiones. The legislator raised the issue during a meeting of the provincial Justicialist Party and linked the condition of the corridors to the use of fuel tax revenue.
Tolosa Paz argued that part of that tax is allocated to Integrated Road System and that users already contribute funds every time they refuel. Based on that premise, she questioned why they should also pay a fee to travel on routes that did not receive the necessary works. In her view, the combination constitutes a double burden if road revenue does not return to infrastructure maintenance.
The deputy focused on national routes 12 and 14 and stated that the priority must be to transfer to Misiones the necessary money to repair and maintain the stretches. She also mentioned the expansion of route 105, that connects Posadas with San José, and other pending road improvements. She pointed out that a concession can charge tolls when the State delivers the corridor in adequate conditions, a scenario that she questioned in this case.
Its criticism reached the general scheme of concessions announced by the Nation. It considered that the model will mainly favor the corridors with enough traffic to be profitable for private operators and asked how the 31.000 kilometers of national routes, which it indicated would be left out of the bids and without toll revenue, would be maintained.
In response, Tolosa Paz anticipated that she will seek to take the claim to the Justice system. She recalled that she filed a collective injunction in the province of Buenos Aires and announced that she intends to extend it to routes 12 and 14 together with Entre Ríos. She proposed that Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, Corrientes, and Misiones coordinate priorities by section, taking into account risks, traffic frequency, and the condition of each road.
The proposal does not yet constitute a judicial ruling nor does it obligate the execution of works. It is a political and legal announcement aimed at demanding the investment of road funds in the provinces crossed by the corridor. The discussion centers on two questions: how the existing revenue will be applied and under what conditions tolls can be charged without passing on to users the cost of deteriorated infrastructure.
