The diminished coffers of the 33 Galician municipalities through which the Atlantic Highway (AP-9) runs will receive this year a lottery ticket worth seven million euros.
It is the amount that will be distributed each year for the collection of 100% of the IBI to Audasa, the concessionaire of this toll road, which until now benefited from a 95% bonus imposed by the Franco highway law that was approved in 1972. A spokesperson for the company has assured this newspaper that it will pay the entire tax without the need for the town councils to present any claim.
The company thus responds to the mobilization of the majority of mayors of the affected towns, who this week have maintained contacts with lawyers to ensure payment of the money.
The councilors responded to the call of the City Council of Abegondo (A Coruña), one of the 33 municipalities through which the road passes.
Its mayor, José Antonio Santiso (PP), has brought them together to propose the presentation of a joint claim to Audasa after the bonus that allowed it to pay taxes of only 5% expired last August.
The councilors intend to apply the tax retroactively based on a legal opinion.
The issue was discussed last Tuesday in a meeting with lawyers attended by representatives of 22 of the 33 affected municipalities.
The spokesperson for the Gonzalo Abogados Iurislocalia firm, José María Simón, defended that the claim is historical and viable: “It would be as if these municipalities won the lottery.”
A spokesperson for Audasa has assured this newspaper that it will not cause problems to pay 100% of the IBI that corresponds between August and December of last year.
The claim raised by the Galician mayors has the precedent of several city councils in Castilla y León.
Last December, the lawsuit allowing them to collect 100% of the IBI for the AP-66 highway was successful.
The mobilization in Galicia in the same sense involves 22 town councils, from north to south of the community and of diverse political color, among them Culleredo, Cambre, Bergondo, Betanzos, Paderne, Cabanas, Ferrol, Oleiros, Mesía, Ordes, Oroso, Santiago de Compostela, Teo, Padrón, Valga, Caldas or Mos.
“The current situation was a patent injustice,” defends Santiso.
“It is time to dedicate those funds to the neighborhood interest.”
To begin with, each council has made its own calculation.
In Abegondo, with barely 6,000 inhabitants, Audasa's infrastructure affects 20 kilometers of municipal land and, however, the road has no access for residents.
Santiso specified that the concessionaire's IBI earns 29,000 euros per year, when the company would have to pay 550,000 euros.
The councilor points out paradigmatic examples of other small towns such as Caldas (Pontevedra), with barely 10,000 inhabitants, which from billing 15,000 euros would go on to charge 300,000, almost the same percentage as Vigo, which exceeds 293,000 inhabitants.
Also significant is the amount of 700,000 that Santiago would receive, compared to the 35,000 that it receives with the subsidized receipt, according to the calculations presented by Manuel Casal Vilas, Councilor for Economy and Finance.
The Provincial Council of A Coruña, the administration governed by PSOE and BNG that has the powers of the tax function of 18 of the 20 municipalities of this province affected by AP-9 (all except the cities of A Coruña and Ferrol), has communicated also his intention to claim 100% of the IBI this year.
The deputy responsible for the Treasury area, José Ramón Rioboo (PSOE), has explained that the 18 town councils under his tax jurisdiction will now receive 3.7 million euros compared to the 175,000 euros of the last settlement, including Abegondo.
Audasa admits that Royal Decree Law 173/2000 that extended its concession contemplates the extension of “each and every one of the tax, economic-financial and any other benefits granted to date” except for those related to the IBI, which expired. last August 19.
The company adds that the seven million euros that it must pay to the municipalities for this concept are already included in its budget.
According to his data, he will pay 67 million euros in taxes in Galicia.
In 2022 the concessionaire obtained a profit of 61 million euros compared to 42 million in 2019, the year before the outbreak of the pandemic.
Toll revenues also rose, going from 153 in 2019 to 171.
The judicial battle over abusive tolls
The State-owned Atlantic Highway runs between Ferrol and the Portuguese border and is the busiest in Galicia.
Along its 214.7 kilometers it passes through the cities of A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Pontevedra and Vigo, and in Tui it connects with the Portuguese highway A-3 to Porto.
In eight years the infrastructure has gone from 156.3 kilometers of roads to the current 214.7, that is, it has increased by 29% and, however, income has gone from 46.8 million to 118.2, with a increase of 156%.
After a series of multiple accidents caused by ice in December 2008 kept the main cities of Galicia incommunicado for more than four hours, a debate began in the community about the recovery by the State of control of the Atlantic Highway. .
The main political forces with parliamentary representation, PP, PSdeG and BNG, held Audasa responsible for poor management in terms of safety and maintenance of the highway and demanded its public management in the face of the dire situation of the main communication route in Galicia.
Since then, the controversy surrounding the concessionaire has been recurring, with the increase in toll prices as its axis.
In fact, the accusations against Audasa for abusive tolls is another chapter that has ended up in court.
The Pontevedra Prosecutor's Office opened proceedings for the alleged improper charging of drivers during the expansion works of the Rande bridge between February 2015 and June 2018, when traffic jams occurred daily without compensation for the affected users, which numbered in the thousands. .
Almost 60,000 vehicles had to endure the inconveniences of a structural reform on the entry and exit road to Vigo, without any alternative access road.
More than 81 incidents were recorded in the execution of these works.
The Prosecutor's complaint has had a long history and has ended up in the Supreme Court.
A first ruling from the Commercial Court number 1 sentenced the concessionaire to compensate those affected by the traffic jams that occurred during the three years that the works lasted.
In April 2021, however, the first section of the Pontevedra Court upheld Audasa's appeal.
The company's lawyer asked to revoke the previous ruling at the appeal hearing when he appreciated
contradictions in several witnesses whom he also pointed out as possible recipients of compensation.
He argued that the law requires them to always charge for the toll and that he maintained that the claim should be resolved in the contentious-administrative court and not in a commercial court.
The matter is still pending the ruling of the Supreme Court.
The Pontevedra Prosecutor's Office presented an appeal requesting the Civil Chamber to annul the ruling in favor of Audasa.
It was admitted last May, so the high court will have the final say on whether the concessionaire's actions were abusive or not.
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