Carlos Lozada, Minister of Transport and Communications, indicated that the service in reference to the Metropolitan cannot be suspended as stated by the companies that provide it at any time, because it has a concession contract in force.
“MEF through the General Directorate of Private Investment has had meetings with technical teams from Pro Transporte to determine what information should be presented. I understand that the mayor has presented information, hopefully, the economic-financial report is there, which is what the MEF will evaluate in order to develop the rule. And we don’t know if the mechanism is subsidy, transfer or subsidy-rate. It is likely that the user fee will be subsidized for the sustainability of the system”, said the MTC minister.
As stated for a local television channel, the ministry involved will review the relevant documentation in order to evaluate the economic-financial situation presented by the Municipality of Lima. He also added that it would be sought that the higher-ranking regulations that could improve this situation are expected to arrive before the proposed date for its suspension, that is, on the 15th of this month.
«Hopefully, yes, but keep in mind that this is a concession contract. In a public transport concession contract, there are obligations, which is always to guarantee the service. The public transport service cannot be suspended due to a stoppage since there are contractual obligations and these indicate that the service must be maintained and all mechanisms must be exhausted«, he said.
For his part, the mayor of Lima, Jorge Muñoz, proposed that a pertinent solution to solve the deficit in which they find themselves be countered with the investment of the Executive in the payment of a part of the passages of the users of the service in order to avoid paralysis.
«We have proposed, among other things, that the Central Government assume a part of the passage to make compensation and this could be done because when a user enters the Metropolitan, the feeders or brokers have a card and do not pay with money, but rather they generate the validations, so there could be a quantity that the Central Government assumes directly», he told the local media outlet.