Court denies injunction prohibiting fare increase.
The 4th Public Treasury Court of Porto Alegre denied a preliminary injunction request that sought to prohibit the increase in public transport fares in the capital until a bidding process for the concession of the service is held; the increase is 18,3% in the bus fare, which will be R$ 3,49. The request to block the readjustment was made by Deputy Pedro Ruas (Psol).
Rio Grande do Sul 247 - The 4th Public Treasury Court of Porto Alegre denied a preliminary injunction request that sought to prohibit the increase in public transport fares in the capital until a bidding process for the concession of the service is held. The increase is 18,3% in the bus fare, which will be R$ 3,49. The request to block the readjustment was made by Deputy Pedro Ruas (Psol).
"As is well known and indisputable, public transportation is a public service and may or may not be operated by private enterprise. For a company to operate in this sector, it obviously needs a valid concession, which can only be granted through a specific bidding process," the legislator stated in the initial petition.
In her ruling, Judge Rosana Broglio Garbin criticized the City Hall's inaction regarding the bidding process for public transportation in Porto Alegre.
"The inertia of the Municipal Public Administration only benefits companies that, without any legitimacy, having not participated in a selection process, have been exploiting the public collective transport service in the Municipality of Porto Alegre, providing an increasingly deficient service of very poor quality, to the total detriment of the population, especially users of urban public transport, in manifest violation of Federal Laws No. 8987/95 and 12.587/2012," stated the magistrate.
But the judge said that, without further details, there is no way to deny the injunction. "The court cannot disregard that public transportation is an essential service to be provided to the population. Even if it can and should be regulated, it must continue, maintained until its regularization in legal form and terms," she stated.