Former Interior Minister Carolina Tohá criticized the announcement by José Antonio Kast's government of a 25% cut in Autopista Central TAG tolls. In exchange, the government would extend the timeline for tendering the Santiago highway.
Tohá made her criticisms on T13 En Vivo's program "Me enteré por la prensa". She called the measure populist and summed it up with the phrase: "a little bread today and hunger tomorrow".
The TAG is the electronic toll collection device used on privately operated urban highways. Tolls are set by contracts with concession companies, and when those contracts expire, the state can put the highway out to tender again.
That point is at the heart of the former minister's objection. "You provide some immediate relief now, but you postpone the new tender, which will substantially lower the tolls people pay," she said. She added that it amounts to "a tiny bit of relief".
According to Tohá, in other cases where contracts expired and new tenders were held, tolls have fallen by as much as half. In her view, the current reduction delays precisely the moment that would bring significant financial relief to people. The sources do not specify how many years the timeline would be extended or the fiscal cost of the measure.
Asked whether the announcement was a response to the government's poor poll ratings, Tohá drew a comparison with the previous administration. She said President Gabriel Boric went through difficult periods but never wavered in his commitment to allow no further pension fund withdrawals or showed any willingness to "carry out these maneuvers with the TAG".
The former minister linked the issue to the proposal for a new withdrawal from AFPs (pension fund administrators), promoted by the People's Party (PDG). "These measures are populist. As for withdrawals, I assume the government will not endorse them, and I hope its lawmakers will not either," she said.
Tohá warned that decisions of this kind impoverish the country, reduce its reserves and undermine public trust. "If workers and their pensions are made to foot the entire bill through withdrawals, and through the prospect of cheaper TAG contracts, that makes us much more unjust," she concluded.
The available sources do not include a government response to these criticisms. The reduction remains at the announcement stage, and its implementation will depend on an agreement with the concession company on extending the contract.
