Ten years after protests, SP City Hall studies adoption of free pass

Ten years after the start of the major protests in 2013 against the increase in public transport fares in the city of São Paulo, the city of São Paulo is studying the adoption of the free pass in the city. The “Tarifa Zero” project is being developed by São Paulo Transporte (SPTrans), a public company that manages transport in the municipality.

The city hall and the company inform that the study is not yet ready, but that 37 civil society manifestations regarding the project have already been received. “SPTrans will analyze and consider all manifestations received in this call and incorporate what fits into ongoing studies”, said, in a note, the city hall.

Chairman of the Zero Tariff subcommittee at the São Paulo City Council, councilor Paulo Frange (PSB) states that the intention of the municipal administration is to gradually implement the free pass, starting, for example, with people from the Single Registry (CadÚnico) – base of data from the federal government that serves to identify and know the most vulnerable people and families.

“We believe that gradualism is possible. São Paulo has the financial health for this at the moment”, he highlights. According to him, the financing of the system will not be done with an increase or the creation of fees or contributions.

“We have to do our economic engineering within our adjustments, even if it takes a little longer. But we cannot create anything else that can increase revenue with higher taxation. It does not pass through the proposal of the municipal government and also does not pass through the Chamber that kind of thinking”.

Public transport in São Paulo costs around R$ 12 billion per year. Approximately half of this is paid out of municipal administration coffers. The other half is funded by system users who buy a ticket. It is this amount, around BRL 6 billion per year, that would need to be financed for the free pass to be possible.

According to Frange, among the financing proposals is the use of transportation voucher resources, which would yield R$ 2.8 billion per year to the city hall. For that, however, it would be necessary to change the federal legislation.

“We would have to find support in federal legislation so that transportation voucher resources – what companies today sponsor for their employees – would come to the municipality’s coffers and not directly into each person’s salary. That would already be another 2.8 billion to close this account”.

The chairman of the subcommittee also mentions the possibility of new resources generated by exploiting advertising on the windows and bodywork of approximately 13,000 buses in the city of São Paulo. “We have 13,000 buses and, for sure, there will be an increase in this number because we will also have to meet a greater demand (with the free pass). We don’t know what percentage more, but there would be around 15,000 billboards circulating in the city itself”, he points out.

Another proposal highlighted by Frange is for the municipality to keep the values ​​of Cide-combustíveis (Contribution for intervention in the economic domain incident on operations carried out with fuel) and not pass them on to the federal government, as is the case today.

“What we are waiting for is that Cide’s resources, eventually, can stay in the city, and not be transferred to the federal government, to later return only a portion to the municipality. If the contribution collected here stays in the municipality, it would be another source of income that would help to subsidize and close this account”.

Free Pass for CadÚnico

This Tuesday (5) the Zero Tariff subcommittee of the São Paulo City Council will present a bill (PL) so that people included in the CadÚnico will no longer pay for public transport in the city. The benefit may also be extended to unemployed people who are not on the register.

“Those who are on the CadÚnico are looking for a job and the person looking for a job does not have the financial means to travel from one place to another. As well as people who are not registered in the CadÚnico but are unemployed, they have an obstacle in the tariff, to do an interview, medical examination. It will be an interesting first step (the free pass) for those who are in the program and for people who are currently unemployed”, highlights the president of the subcommittee.