The Congestion Charge Law, which was passed as part of last year’s Economic Arrangements Law, will remain on the law books despite the opposition of many of the ministers in the current government, led by Transport Minister Miri Regev, who promised to cancel it. However, “Globes” has learned that the Ministry of Transport has decided to freeze the project, by suspending the tender process that was published for the establishment and operation of the project that was due to come into force in 2025, while extending the deadline for submitting proposals to an indefinite date.
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Tenders tend to be delayed, often at the request of bidders, and the bid time also tends to be extended from time to time – but setting a tender without a visible deadline calls into question its credibility with potential bidders and harms the attractiveness of the tender process in the private market.
The law was passed by the previous government, and it includes the application of congestion charges in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan area, with the price being determined based on three zones, with a maximum charge of NIS 25 for passing between all three zones during rush hours. The tender was published last September, and the last submission date for it was set at the end of this month. The coalition agreements stipulate that the law on congestion charges will be repealed.
A possible reason for the Ministry of Transport’s decision not to lead to the repeal of the law, but rather freezing the reform, is the fact that the agreement signed at the time between the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance included a significant portion of the public transport budgets in the passage of the law on congestion charges and its repeal would see overall budgets cut back.
For example, it was set that NIS 500 million would be added annually to the budget for additional bus services over five years.
During discussions on the state budget, the Ministry of Finance strongly opposed the repeal of the law and the reform, and stressed that its repeal would lead to the cancellation of the budget for extra services as well as additional budgets conditioned on the application of the fee.
No response was received from the Ministry of Transport.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on March 15, 2023.
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