State legislators this week rejected a proposal submitted by the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to eliminate the 500-peso charge for inspections required in the revamped emissions testing program (Verificacion responsable).
Legislators from the Citizen Movement (MC), National Action (PAN) and Green Party (PVEM) all voted to maintain the charge.
The Morena and PRI legislators argued that the fee mostly affects the pocketbooks of the less well off, whose vehicles tend to be older models, and less likely to pass the checks.
They also called the program a money-making “business” operated by the state government and private company commissioned to carry out the tests.
The PRI’s parliamentary coordinator, Hugo Contreras Zepeda, had suggested that money raised from the payment of speeding fines (fotoinfracciones) be channeled to fund the verification program. His idea was also rejected.