The Treasury raises the compensation of mileage expenses by 37% six days before the elections and after 18 years without updating it

The Treasury has decided to raise the compensation granted by the State to citizens who use their personal vehicle to work after having them frozen for 18 years and less than a week before the elections. Starting this Monday, employees who pull their car, van, motorcycle…. personnel to work will be entitled to compensation of 26 cents per kilometer traveled (10.6 in the case of motorcycles), 37% more than what they could receive up to now.

The department headed by María Jesús Montero has approved two ministerial orders this Monday in which it develops the measure, which affects both public employees and private professionals, although the regulatory formula that applies to each one is different. The increase in compensation for mileage is practically equivalent to the increase in the CPI registered between 2022 and 2005, the last year in which its amount had been updated.

From the Ministry of Finance they have justified the decision in the sharp increase in the price of raw materials that has occurred after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In particular, they mention the significant rise in the price of fuel, which now costs twice as much as 18 years ago, when the amount in force until Monday was set.

In addition, the department of Montero hides behind the fact that this measure was already foreseen in the Government's plans for a long time. In the anti-war decree approved in December of last year, an authorization was included so that the minister could execute the measure by means of a ministerial order. And it was also reflected in the Framework Agreement for a 21st Century Administration signed with the unions in November of last year.

However, although this measure is already planned at the end of 2022, the Executive has decided to wait for the electoral campaign to apply it. A movement similar to the one that occurred last week with the approval of the public employment offer for 2023, the largest in the history of public administrations, with almost 40,000 new jobs.

Who can benefit?

Compensation for mileage expenses for those who use their personal vehicle for work have been operating in Spain since the end of the last century. Those 26 cents per kilometer of compensation reflect the cost of fuel, wear, breakdowns, insurance, taxes…. suffered by the worker's vehicle for its work use.

Potential beneficiaries are all workers who use their personal vehicle to work. In this sense, it is important to point out that trips from the place of residence to the workplace are excluded.

Compensation works differently for public employees than for private ones. In the first case, the State pays the compensation amount directly to the worker, once he has presented the refueling invoice and a statement justifying the displacement and its veracity has been verified.

In the case of the private sector, the compensation is applied via personal income tax in the form of an exemption. It is also necessary to justify the displacement in a document and it can include toll and parking costs. Asked by 20minutos, the Ministry of Finance indicates that it does not have an estimate of how many people benefit from this compensation or the cost that it entails for public coffers as it is an exemption in personal income tax, they point out.