Presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier on Tuesday denied at the Casa Rosada that any misuse of funds had occurred Federal judge Ernesto Kreplak, sitting in La Plata, this week admitted a class action and requested urgent reports from the Ministry of Economy, the National Roads Directorate and Banco Nación on the use of resources from the Integrated Road System (SisVial), a trust fund financed by the tax on liquid fuels whose legal purpose is the construction and maintenance of national highways.
The case originated in an investigation by the newspaper La Nación, according to which 1,503,252 million pesos entered the fund between January 2024 and May 2026, of which 394,406 million were spent on road works, or 26.2% of the total. As of May 31, the fund held more than one trillion pesos — around 670 million dollars — in government bonds and fixed-term deposits. Execution stood at 11.3% in 2024, 39% in 2025 and 18.5% in the first five months of this year.
Some 28.58% of fuel tax revenue goes to the Transport Infrastructure Trust, and half of that share corresponds to SisVial.
Presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier on Tuesday denied at the Casa Rosada that any misuse of funds had occurred. Days earlier he had told provincial media that part of the revenue had gone towards achieving fiscal balance, one of the pillars of Javier Milei’s economic policy. Ravier said the government’s new approach is for national highways to be financed by private investment rather than tax revenue. Of the 40,000 kilometres of national road network, the executive has tendered 9,000.
The class action was brought by lawmaker Victoria Tolosa Paz, who also filed a criminal complaint. The government charges a fuel tax to maintain our roads and, instead of spending it on works, three out of every four pesos from SisVial went into financial gambling, she said. A separate complaint by lawmaker Marcela Pagano was assigned to judge Julio Ercolini, who as of this week had not referred it to a prosecutor. No officials have been charged and no criminal case has been formally opened.
Subsequent reporting extended the pattern to other funds. According to the fact-checking outlet Chequeado, of the 375,000 million pesos collected since early 2024 for water works, around a third was executed, with the remainder placed in Treasury bills and deposits.
The national roads workers’ union says 70% of highways are in fair to poor condition. Milei announced in 2024 the elimination of trust funds, which he called political slush funds; around 27 remain active, with their administration concentrated in the Ministry of Economy.
