Aware of this reality, in the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma) they have rushed to give their vision of the figures once the Treasury has released the report. Until June 30 it has been executed 16% of budget for 2022, specifically 15.78%. This means that 348.38 million have been spent euros of the 2,207 million planned.
Without counting the payment to Abertis
The Mitma prefers to eliminate from this equation the payment of the 1,069 million that have already been paid to Abertis for the improvements it made in its day on the AP-2 and AP-7, that should be paid at the end of the concession in August 2021. At the time it was agreed that the company would works of a third and fourth rail or removal of trunk barriers and the works were financed.
When the tolls were withdrawn, the State had to pay the cost of these works, which the company had not amortized, as agreed in an agreement. However, the ministry and the concessionaire continue to litigate in court for the final amount.
The fact of withdraw the 1,000 million of Abertis of the budgetary execution in Catalonia when presenting the situation responds to the objective that the data are not misleading, since otherwise the execution would reach 69.29%.
“We are not satisfied”
The person in charge of reacting to the IGAE report has been the Secretary General of Infrastructures, Xavier Flores, always with one foot in Barcelona and the other in Madrid. “We are not satisfied with the low percentage of budget execution”, he has agreed to go on to ensure that, nevertheless, Catalonia is the first autonomous community in Adif and Adif high-speed spending and the second in Renfe investments.
Flores has stated that the breaches have “many causes”, some structural (such as starting some works always costs and is when less is spent) and others circumstantial (such as the rise in prices and the lack of raw materials as a result of the war in Ukraine). However, the secretary general has settled that “it is not for lack of political will.”
They aspire to 18%
Without taking into account the payment to Abertis, it is considered that 14% of the executed regionalizable investment: specifically, 314 million, which represents 40% more than in the same period of 2021. Mitma’s estimate is that, if the works are carried out as planned, could reach 18% of territorializable investment.
Among the projects that have slowed down the pace of execution there is the judicial appeal that has stopped the works of the Montcada i Reixac station (Vallès Occidental, Barcelona), tendered for 465.5 million euros. Instead, Mitma is hopeful that jobs for the burial of the tracks in Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Baix Llobregat, Barcelona) or the project of the mediterranean corridor between Tarragona and Martorell (Baix Llobregat) gain momentum in the coming months and allow data to be improved.
Complaint from the Chamber of Commerce
The day before, the minister Raquel Sánchez had appeared in Barcelona to explain the 2023 budgets of its portfolio and already announced that they were satisfied with the execution percentage of the first semester, of 40%, something that advanced in an interview in EL PERIÓDICO days ago. This statement had edges, since the first six months of 2021 had been especially bad, so it was easy to improve. In fact, last year closed with the worst historical figure since 2015. And Sánchez confirmed again that the budget execution raises blisters.
The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce has rushed to assess the data and to censor Catalonia’s position again “in the queue of the ranking of autonomous communities by degree of execution”. “The figures once again show the underinvestment that exists and the enormous difference between what was budgeted and what was actually executed”, they lamented.
Public enterprises
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According to the report of the Ministry of Finance, 13.3% of the 1,932.7 million euros provided for in the public sector companiesincluding Adif (with 7.3% executed) and Adif Alta Velocidad (22.2%), Renfe (11.1%), Enaire (25.8%), Puertos del Estado (17.8%), Cilsa (17.8%) and the Barcelona Free Zone Consortium (167.7%).
As for Renfe, it is expected that at the end of the year 70% is reached of the execution due to the end of several works and the purchase of trains for Rhodes.