By Bernardo Gonzaga
Brazil needs to invest R$295 billion (US$60 billion) until 2042 to modernize urban mobility in the country’s 15 main metropolitan regions, according to a study by CNI (National Confederation of Industry).
The study also points out that it is important to increase the number of Public-Private Partnerships in a model that brings together the construction of the system, operation, and maintenance in contracts lasting around 30 years.
“The binding nature of the restrictions and the low public investment in mass public transport has implied a pattern characterized by interruptions and paralysis of projects, which has led to the search for new institutional arrangements, particularly in the field of metro-rail urban mobility,” says the study.
The study also concluded that the crisis in urban mobility in Brazil worsened starting in 2010 with the increase in car use while the fiscal crisis worsened.
The moment also coincided with a decrease in investments in mass transportation systems.
Here are the recommendations proposed by CNI for the urban mobility system:
- Ensure more effective instruments for the modernization of the systems, with institutional and governance improvements in the municipalities and municipal law as a tool for the effectiveness of mobility plans;
- Give metropolitan regions more effective governance structures, transferring the attributions of urban mobility management to a metropolitan institution focused exclusively on mobility;
- To expand public resources for investments in mobility. The study points out that a possible source of resources would be the Contribution for Intervention in the Economic Domain (CIDE-Fuel), which is expected to be collected again in 2023;
- The creation of “funds for the economic-financial balance of public transportation operators”, administered by the metropolitan regions with the Union;
- and to finance gratuities from the public budget, eliminating cross-subsidies.
The study also pointed out that urban transport gratuities should be financed by public power.
For the CNI, cross-subsidies (when a surplus asset finances another that is loss-making) make other fares more expensive.
“It is essential to review the eligibility or targeting of gratuities, such as the financing model. In this perspective, cross-subsidies should be eliminated, and the State should assume the burden transparently and reflected in the budget,” said the study.
The CNI also suggests the taxation of transportation apps that encourage greater use of private cars in cities and contribute to congestion as an extra funding source.
“The taxation of transportation by application is not only justified but is being adopted in a growing number of places in the world to regulate the service, as is the case in 14 states and 20 US cities.”
“(…) Thus, we recommend the application of this form of taxation to minimize the negative externalities caused by the racing applications and be a source of funds for the public transport subsidy,” says the study.
With information from Poder360
News Brazil, English news Brazil, CNI (National Confederation of Industry), urban mobility in Brazil