Toll Roads and gas price hikes keep digging into the pockets of Costa Ricans. Photo by Tico Times, the newspaper.
In a country that is known for some of the worse drivers, unreal traffic (San Jose in particular), and poor road maintenance once again, the government has added to the public misery by 1) cigarette tax hike, and NOW, 2) tripling the toll road fees and 3) raising gas prices … all this has happened in the last 60 days.
Motorists have begun paying a new toll on the Próspero Fernández Highway to and from Escazú, west of San José, of ¢310 ($0.54), up from the previous fee of ¢75 ($0.13).
Well, it may not seem a lot to us North Americans (.41 cents) … but it is just another expense that the poor locals are force to deal with, especially in a country whose average income is 200-$500 a month.
So how they are dealing with it? “In the spirit of Ticoism protesting”, they have created traffic jams in the back roads in the area.
Reports from friends who live in the area say, “It is unbearable.” One friend reported, “It is almost impossible to cross a street now … this is just bull sh#@!”
Now this is where it gets interesting, armed with the new taxpayer capital, US bank Citigroup (which got 40 billion in US bailout Tax dollars) has gone on a toll road buying binge that amounts to $10 billion buying 44 foreign toll roads, including some in Costa Rica. And to be fair, which ones they got US tax dollars in, sorry we can not say.
We do know, the San José-Caldera Toll Road Project construction overall project value is $330 million. The San Ramon Project is around $300 million.
Hummm … two interesting thoughts … I wonder what the getting-reamed-again US tax payer will be saying if this bailout money is being redirected to help stimulate the economy in another country? And if Costa Ricans are now helping to pay for Citigroup’s bailout?
Now to top it off (pun intended) gas prices have risen almost 15% since March. This tax hike was approved last week by the Public Services Regulatory Authority. And like the US, overall transportation was down, but prices are still rising. Taxi and private bus service was also down 3 percent in April, which has been most effected by the decline in the tourist industry.
It is quite evident, that like the US government, Costa Rica is supplementing their revenue by taxing the common folks.
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