The 17% increase in tariffs for Cuenca del Plata Terminal (TCP) It is “reasonable,” said the Minister of Transport and Public Works, José Luis Falero, who justified the government’s actions in the matter and recalled that today they are lower than when the current administration took office.
This way, falero responded to strong criticism from exporting sectors, from where they even asked that the Executive back down with the measure, something that generated controversy with the concessionary company Katoen Natie, from where they pointed out that the costs to export from the Port of Montevideo they are not outdated.
“Only a parametric adjustment was made. In the first instance it was going to be of a higher percentage, it was analyzed with the Ministry and the OPP and a smaller increase was deemed appropriate,” justified the chief, who stressed that “of that 24% adjustment to exports, 13% was authorized,” he specified, referring to the increase for export movements and temporary admission, which It’s that percentage.
“It was understood that it was a reasonable adjustment within what has been the salary increase and the costs that the Uruguay, that they have been very high and on which we must continue working”, continued the minister.
Besides, falero ratified the government’s commitment to “end the government period with a lower rate than when we took office.” Along these lines, he recalled: “When we started the administration, the strong concern of the export and agricultural sector it was that there had been an excessive increase for them of more than 300% in two or three years. This government not only managed not to impose new increases, but also reduced the tariff, product of the port agreement, by 26%”.
The cross between the agricultural unions and Katoen Natie after the increase
Faced with the rate increase, the Rice Growers Association, the National Association of Milk Producers, the Rural Association of Uruguay, the National Commission for Rural Development, the Federated Agricultural Cooperatives and the rural federation They signed a joint statement to express “their deep concern” about the adjustment.
In the letter, which was classified as a “falsehood” by Katoen Natie, The unions stated that the increase means “a new and severe damage to the national productive sector, which is charged with a cost that further aggravates the sustained loss of competitiveness about which we have been warning insistently”.
There they asked the government to “guarantee that the costs of this terminal stop representing another obstacle to the competitiveness and that port be, as it should, a strategic partner of those who produce and contribute their work and effort to the development of the country”, something that finally the Executive discarded today.
Source: Ambito
