How to treat the long-term toll of expressway?

Expressway toll collection is a commonplace topic. The introduction of the revised draft once again triggered a public opinion rebound. Of course, this news is in line with the general trend of state-owned enterprise reform, and it is a shot in the arm for the provinces to build hundreds of billions of listed companies, and it also gives reassurance to the maintenance team under the trading group of the unit directly under the Provincial Communications Department.

In this regard, as consumers, do they have the basic right to know after paying high highway tolls for many years?

Why do highways lose money?

Why the expressway has suffered huge losses is probably the most concerned issue of the public. Officials believe that the rapid growth of highway mileage is accompanied by the rapid growth of debt and the loss of highways for years. On June 30th, 20 14, the Ministry of Transport published the Statistical Bulletin of the National Toll Road for 20 14 (hereinafter referred to as the Statistical Bulletin), which showed that by the end of 20 14, the total investment of the national toll road construction was1449 billion yuan (excluding the cancelled toll roads). Debt capital investment was 4,265.20 billion yuan, accounting for 69.4% of the total investment in toll road construction. However, such a large investment has not been well rewarded. According to the statistical bulletin, in 20 14 years, the balance of revenue and expenditure of national toll roads was negative15710/000000 yuan, that is, the revenue and expenditure gap was157100000 yuan. This is not the first time that there has been a highway loss: in 20 13 years, the national toll road balance was negative 66 1 100 million yuan, that is, the overall loss was 66 1 100 million yuan. This year's loss is 2.37 times that of last year.

Where did the huge losses come from? Wang Tai, deputy director of the Highway Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, believes that the reasons include the increase in debt service expenditure and the increasing debt scale during normal debt service. The scale of debt is inseparable from the huge demand for toll roads and the financing method of "loan road construction". Coupled with the acceleration of expressway construction, high debts have been accumulated.

However, the huge scale of debt cannot explain the real source of losses. There is a very interesting data in the statistical bulletin. By the end of 20 14, the national toll road mileage was 162600 km. According to the attributes, the government repays loans 10400 km, and the operating roads are 58,500 km, accounting for 64.0% and 36.0% of the national toll road mileage respectively. According to the explanation, the government repayment highway "refers to the highway built by the transportation department of the local government at or above the county level with loans or paid fund-raising by enterprises and individuals, and uses financial bills when charging", while the operating highway "refers to the highway invested and built by domestic and foreign economic organizations or accepted by the government according to the highway law, and uses tax bills when charging." In other words, the government repayment highway is a non-profit highway, while the operating highway is a profit highway. From the perspective of balance of payments, among the total revenue and expenditure gap of1571kloc-0/000000, the revenue and expenditure gap of government repayment roads is1293.7 billion yuan, and the revenue and expenditure gap of operating roads is 27.74 billion yuan, accounting for 82.34% and1766 respectively. Under the premise of unified expressway toll standards, the loss of government-repaid expressways, which only accounts for 64% of the toll mileage, accounts for 82.34%, which is out of proportion to its mileage. Does this mean that the government's non-profit repayment of loans may lead to more losses?

Why is the operating cost of the government repayment expressway higher than that of the operating expressway? My explanation is that the government's repayment highway is dominated by the government, and because there is no profit target, it will lead to all kinds of waste in its production and operation process, and the cost can not be controlled. However, running a highway is not. The purpose of building expressways is to make profits, so there will be an incentive to save costs as much as possible. Even if these companies are state-owned, they will have various motives to do so. Considering that many domestic expressway operators are listed companies, they are obliged to disclose information and accept the supervision of shareholders, and this external pressure will also force them to improve their operation level and strive to reduce costs.

In fact, the difference between the government repayment highway and the commercial highway is not only reflected in the business process, but also in the investment decision. The operating toll road is based on the profit target, so the possible future income will be considered more when the project is established, but there is no such requirement for the government to repay the road-the government's goal is to build roads, and whether it is profitable or not is not within its consideration. For many local governments, building roads is a political achievement, so there will be more motivation to build roads. So we found such a strange phenomenon. In 20 14, the GDP of Anhui province was about 1. 17 times that of Shaanxi province, and the population was about 1.727 times that of Shaanxi province, but the expressway mileage of Shaanxi province was about 1.27 times that of Anhui province. Perhaps many people will argue that Shaanxi's toll road mileage is higher than Anhui's because Shaanxi's area is larger than Anhui's, but in my opinion, even if this statement is established, it does not mean that the investment cost of Shaanxi's unit mileage will be 2.24 times that of Anhui. The only explanation is that the government has stronger budget soft constraints in repaying loans.

To reduce the loss of toll roads, the most practical way may be to turn toll roads into profitable business roads instead of unprofitable government repayment roads. This conclusion sounds a bit strange, but it is a portrayal of reality. At the same time, it also means that it may be wrong for many people to call for reducing toll roads and returning them to public welfare. If the toll road returns to "public welfare" and no longer charges, its operating cost will increase greatly, and taxpayers may have to bear more costs.