It was good news for vehicle fleet owners and mixed news for motorcycle riders last week. Owners of fleets of vehicles, due to paying a stiff hike in the annual Marchamo circulation permits, will get a 10% reduction come January.

Motorcycle owners will also get a healthy reduction in the 12,500 colon marchamos, down to 8,500. But they have to wait until 2014 to get it. It is unlikely that bikers, not the most patient of people who have held two public protests, are jumping for joy.

Representatives of various biker associations gathered at Cosevi headquarters in La Uruca Thursday in a long, long meeting with a government representative, former vice minister of the Presidency and present head of the National Training Institute (INA), Francisco Marin.

He dangled before the bikers a slightly withered carrot. Yes, they could get a reduction — a year from now. He was responding to a demand from bikers that the 33% of the amount destined for the highway safety agency Cosevi, be dropped.

But Marin patiently explained that it was too late to adjust Cosevi’s budget that was part of the National Budget approved by lawmakers in November.

Since Marin is not in President Laura Chinchilla’s cabinet, it is unclear whether he had Presidency approval for the counter offer. But it was better than the cyclists had got for blocking traffic before — then Casa Presidencial had refused to speak with them.

The government also was represented by insurance chief Guillermo Constenla of INS, the state-owned insurance agency who controls the strings on the compulsory bike insurance.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry’s tax people lowered the Marchamo permit rate for fleet owners. Presumably, this would not bend the Cosevi budget out of shape.

This came after an adjustment in valuation of auto value that would hit them in another part of their wallet.

This year many motorists perceived a difference in Marchamo rates because of a new formula for figuring depreciation of vehicles — an adjustment that resulted in a consumer association filing suit in court (Sala IV).

Since it is hard to keep track of all the ebb and flow, Minister of Finance Edgar Ayales assured listeners on ADN radio that, if they had paid too much for their Marchamo, they would be given a refund.

Source: Fijatevos.com