The Constitutional Court has established the criteria that tolls are a fee, and not a tax. This gives the government a green light to raise tolls without having to submit a bill to Congress.

By means of this decision TC/0045/12, the high court rejected an appeal of unconstitutionality against Resolution No. 01/2002 of 26 July 2002 issued by the Ministry of Public Works, because there was no violation of congressional privilege that establishes taxes or general contributions. The high court said that it has to be pointed out that the toll is a fee or a tariff charged to a means of ground or river transportation as a right of passage for the use of infrastructure whose construction, operation and maintenance financing is economically sustained by the income collected for this concept.

The court says that as a legal figure (the toll) has a nature that identifies it more as a fee instead of a tax, "since the fees n as opposed to taxes - are economic contributions that are made by the users of some service provided by the state, with the purpose of compensating the economic expenses incurred in the provision of said service."

The court said that it was evident that the tolls as a contribution figure are not taxes, nor does the establishment of their amount by the Ministry of Public Works constitute or characterize a constitutional violation.

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