Tolls are abolished this Wednesday on the structural highways in the Interior and Algarve known as SCUT, after more than 13 years of people’s struggle to restore the initial financing model for these roads at no cost to the user.
Tolls are abolished today on the A4 – Transmontana and Túnel do Marão, A13 and A13-1 – Pinhal Interior, A22 – AlgarveA23 – Beira Interior, A24 – Interior Norte, A25 – Beiras Litoral and Alta and A28 – Minho, the latter only in the sections between Esposende and Antas and between Neiva and Darque.
The proposal that “eliminates toll fees on sections and sub-sections of highways in the interior and on roads where there are no alternatives that allow quality and safe use” was presented by the PS and approved with the favorable votes of the PS, Chega, BE, PCP, Livre and PAN, with IL abstaining and PSD and CDS-PP voting against. The law was promulgated by the President of the Republic in July 2024.
According to the socialists, the measure has a budgetary impact of 157 million euros.
The approval of the diploma was controversial, with the parties that support the Government accusing the socialists of “hypocrisy” and “incoherence”, since, in February 2023, the parliament, at the time with a socialist majority, was failed, with votes against from the PS, diplomas from PSD, Chega and PCP to reduce or eliminate toll payments in the old SCUT.
On the occasion, the parliamentary leader of the PS, Eurico Brilhante Dias, recalled that the value of tolls on motorways has been decreasing under the socialist governments, accusing the social democrats of “political opportunism”.
The Platform for the Replacement of Scuts on the A23 and A25, which has developed persistent actions to eliminate tolls on these roads, considered that the end of tolls “does justice to the population and companies in the interior of the country”.
Opposing opinions come from entities such as the Portuguese Association of Motorway or Toll Bridge Concession Companies (), the Portuguese Taxpayers Association (APC) and the Portuguese Railway Companies Association (APEF), which criticized the end of tolls on these roads.
APCAP and APC pointed out that the end of these tolls will transfer the costs of building and maintaining infrastructure from users to taxpayers in general, while APEF considered that the decision penalizes the railway, which is why it demanded equitable measures.
Toll roads at no cost to the user were introduced in Portugal in 1997, when António Guterres was Prime Minister. At the time, the costs were entirely borne by the State.
Under much controversy, the financing model for these roads changed from 2010, when the costs of the ex-SCUTs began to be paid by users.
Also read:
