Toll for the Martín García Canal on the main waterway is waived

The National Agency for Ports and Navigation (ANPYN) has retroactively extended the 16.7% discount on the toll rate of the Main Navigable Waterway for all vessels using the Martín García Channel. The decision was formalized in Resolution 54/2026 (reference RESOL-2026-54-APN-ANPYN#MEC), signed on September 8 by the agency’s executive director, Iñaki Miguel Arreseygor, and published in the Official Gazette of the Argentine Republic on September 9, 2026.

The discount applies to the stretch between Section 0.0 and Section 1.2, in both directions, of the “Main Navigable Waterway Concession Contract” signed on September 2, 2021. The measure is effective retroactively from September 1, 2026, and will remain in place until the contractor for Public Tender No. 1/2025 takes possession of the concession.

Background of the discount

The new measure extends a benefit already granted by Resolution No. 42 of July 16, 2026, issued by ANPYN itself, which discounted the same rate and stretch by the identical percentage. According to the recitals, the extension responds to the expiration of the term provided for in that resolution and to the results obtained during its validity, within the framework of the reorganization of activities in the Río de la Plata to maintain navigability conditions and traffic management.

The regulatory framework is completed by a series of previous provisions:

• Decree No. 427 (06/30/2021): granted the General Ports Administration State-Owned Company the concession for the operation, signaling, dredging, and hydrological control of the waterway.
• Decree No. 699 (08/05/2024): declared the activities of dredging, maintenance, signaling, and buoyage of national jurisdiction navigable waterways as a public service.
• Decree No. 709 (08/08/2024): delegated to the then Undersecretariat of Ports and Navigable Waterways the authority to call for and award the toll tender.
• Necessity and Urgency Decree No. 3 (01/03/2025): created the ANPYN as an autarchic entity and the legal successor to the former Undersecretariat.

Scope and validity of the measure

The discount applies to all vessels transiting through the Martín García Channel, one of the river accesses to the Main Navigable Waterway system. Article 2 of the resolution sets its retroactive validity from September 1, 2026, and conditions it upon the taking of possession by the contractor of Public Tender No. 1/2025, at which point the benefit will cease to apply.

Article 3 provides for the communication of the measure to the General Ports Administration SAU -in liquidation-, which intervened in the process. The resolution was issued in exercise of the powers conferred by Necessity and Urgency Decree No. 3 of 2025.

Impact on freight transport

The extension of the bonus has a direct effect on the cost of fluvial freight transport using the Martín García Canal, easing the toll on a strategic section of the waterway. Since it is applied retroactively from September 1, shipowners and operators who have already transited the canal during that period may benefit, within a context of transition toward the new concession of the navigable waterway.

Source: Official Gazette of the Argentine Republic, September 9, 2026, first section (official reference: RESOL-2026-54-APN-ANPYN#MEC).