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Since February 1, tolls have increased by 4.75% on average. But an official report recommended lowering the price for the networks granted to Vinci and Eiffage. A document that the Ministry of the Economy would have kept secret for two years. Excerpt from “Complementary investigation” on an explosive file.
It is The chained Duck who dropped this little bomb last January. According to the satirical weekly, Bercy would have kept at the bottom of his drawers a report devoted to the economic model of motorway companies… for two years.
In this document, the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) pointed to the “over-profitability” of certain motorway concessions originally held by the State. At the end of their contracts, the two main operators, Vinci and Eiffage, could make 55 billion euros in profits according to the finance inspectors. In their report, they made two proposals to bring the profitability of their motorway concessions back to the level expected at the time of privatization: shorten the duration of their contracts or impose a drop in their prices of around 60%.
“The calculations we made were not good”
Motorways: an issue well known the Minister of Economy, who commissioned this report… In 2006, Bruno the Mayor was in the cabinet of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, the one who made the choice of privatization. On March 22, in front of the deputies, he defended himself to have suppressed the conclusions of this report who did not, according to him, intended to be made public. But media pressure forced him to do it. “The calculations we made [au moment de la privatisation] weren’t good. We were wrong”, he admitted, promising to seize the Council of State to study the first option proposed by the report: to reduce the duration of the concessions of the motorway companies. Why not have done it two years earlier, as soon as he learned of the conclusions of the IGF? The minister did not wish to answer the questions of “Complementary investigation”.
On Tuesday June 20, Bruno Le Maire announced that the government was considering taxing motorway concessions. This decision would have received the green light from the Council of State – an opinion which has not been made public either.
Extract from “Tolls, superprofits: our (too) expensive highways”, a document to see in “Complementary investigation” on June 29, 2023.
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