Transport Secretary, Juan Pablo Schiavi during the press conference he gave today in which he announced that an extension for obtaining a SUBE card will be given until March 3.
Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi gave a press conference this morning in which the announcement of new bus/train tariffs for those individuals the national government decides not to subsidy was highly expected, but instead the official just revealed that «SUBE holders will keep current tariffs until we study how to re-direction subsidy funds.»
As the government had previously released a TV spot rushing the population to get their SUBE cards before February 10, as new tariffs would be effective as of tomorrow, today the Transport Secretary announced the deadline for obtaining the card «will be extended until March 2.»
Likewise, the official revealed that SUBE cars «will no longer be handed for free after March 2», and added, «Plus, those who lost their SUBE cards will have to pay for replacement.»
Asked about the card prices, Schiavi refused to say what the cost will be, «I can say that every SUBE currently costs the government 1.10 dollars plus shipping. We’ll re-calculate these numbers on March», but neither diclose what the shipping cost is nor if those costs all together will be the retail price of the cards.
Asked about what will happen to MONEDERO card holders, Schiavi was conclusive «They will no longer get any subsidy benefits.»
The official also explained «The gov’t considers of utmost importance the control. Not of persons but of the resources.»
Surprisingly, Schiavi justified the deadline extension saying that «Argentines always wait until the very last minute to get things done», when the population has been left in total suspense on what was going to happen with bus and train tariffs ever since since the Government aired the afore mentioned TV spot.
It was not until today -less than 24 hours before the previous deadline- the Government decided to come on stage to talk about the topic. Anyway, mistery remains as it’s still not clear what’s going to happen as of March 3.
Another confusing passage took part of the conference when the official said «the government has also detected that many people got their SUBE cards just for fun, as if it were a joke, and not for using it.»
The conference was held at the Economy Ministry located in Hipólito Yrigoyen 250.
buenosairesherald.com