The government will compensate entrepreneurs with a public works contract with the State that there are suffered a rise in the price of raw materials of more than 5% in 2021. This is established in a royal decree approved this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers and which has been presented by the Minister of Transport, Raquel Sánchez. The royal decree establishes extraordinary measures to allow a exceptional review of prices in public contracts if a higher cost of 5% in raw materials is accredited. The amount of the review may not exceed 20% of the award price of the contract.
This impact will be considered to exist when the increase in the cost of steel, bituminous materials, aluminum or copper exceeds 5% of the certified amount of the contract in the 2021 financial year. For this, the publication of the monthly indices of the prices of the basic cost components relative to the last quarter of 2021 will be taken as a reference. Among the potentially reviewable elements of the contract, the price of energy is included. In the Ministry of Transport it is estimated that the compensation to the affected contractors will add an amount around €430 million.
The rise in the price of raw materials led to paralyze or cancel numerous works in the public and private sectors in 2021.
The decree approved by the Government will be applicable to all types of contracts, administrative or private, awarded by any of the entities that are part of the state public sector and that are in execution coinciding with the entry into force of this decree, foreseeably, this Thursday. The Minister of Transport invited the regional and local administrations to replicate this extraordinary measure for their respective contracts.
After the entry into force of the royal decree, the contractor will have a period of two months to request compensation. The amount resulting from this exceptional review must be passed on to the subcontractors in the proportion that corresponds to them in the assumption of costs. Minister Raquel Sánchez stressed that these measures will lead to less litigation and will contribute to better execution of the Recovery Plan financed with European funds.