Users of the waterway, such as agro-exporters, ports, and shipping companies, are rejecting the extent of the toll increase announced by the government. They are also not convinced by the idea of increasing the Paraná River dredging by two feet, which the administration is considering as compensation for the tariff hike.

The main entities representing the sector—such as the Oilseed Industry Chamber, the Exporters’ Center, the Ports Chamber, the Navigation Center, and the Rosario Stock Exchange—are finalizing the details of the presentations they will take to the public hearing to address the tariff increase that the General Ports Administration (AGP) has announced it will soon convene.

Regarding the toll increase, initially, agro-exporters proposed to the government that if the increase was due to the government having to pay off a debt (to the Belgian dredger Jan De Nul), the debt should be paid with public bonds, as was done with the energy sector.

However, users are surprised and upset to find that the AGP’s breakdown of the increase specifies that only $0.48 per ton of net registered weight applies to the payment of the debt to Jan De Nul, despite the final increase being $1.92.

A $0.48 increase might be more acceptable than $1.92, especially since another $0.76 per ton is being added “to balance the economic and financial equation of the AGP.” Users are raising their criticism because they believe that the government should cut expenses rather than passing the burden onto ports, exporters, and shipping companies. This is particularly true given that most of the debt is intra-state (with AFIP for VAT) due to the hasty transfer of administration to the government under Alberto Fernández.

Moreover, as a backdrop, there is a consensus in the private sector that, with no fixed deadline for the end of state administration (it is stated by decree that it will end once the private operator is auctioned), there is time for the debts to be settled over the long term with a smaller increase than $0.48.

Users also reject the additional $0.68 per ton to fund “proposed improvement works.” Two main arguments against this have emerged, particularly from the Navigation Center and Ciara-CEC.

One argument is that the works should be completed first before charging the additional toll. The other argument is that the dredging should be carried out within the framework of a long-term concession that would allow costs to be managed over time to amortize the investment.

In conclusion, users of the waterway are not eager for the navigation route to be deepened and are even less inclined to prepay for the work. They prefer that authorities focus on expediting the tender for a private operator, a process that is moving slower than the business community would like.

The government has indicated that it will have the tender documents by the end of the year and that the tender will be decided by the end of 2025.

Finally, to expedite the process, the Rosario Stock Exchange, the Ports Chamber, Ciara-CEC, the Port Activities Chamber, and the UIA are preparing to update the report they prepared in 2017 (with the LatinoConsult consultancy) to present it as a foundational document on which the government will draft the terms for the concession of the main navigation system to a private operator at state risk.

Those figures—showing that tariffs could be reduced with greater deepening—are outdated as they were prepared before the pandemic and did not account for the global inflation in dollars that subsequently skyrocketed operational costs.