The statutory basis
Article 41 paragraph 13 of Legislative Decree 36 of 2023 provides that for works contracts the cost of products, equipment and operations is determined by reference to prices current at the date of design approval, taken from the price books updated annually by the territorially competent regions and autonomous provinces. Only in cases expressly authorised by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport may recourse be had to prezzari speciali adopted by contracting authorities or granting bodies.
The same paragraph refers to Annex I.14, which forms the technical core of the regime. The annex sets out uniform criteria for the preparation, updating and revision of price books, respecting regional autonomy but within a shared methodological framework, and requires annual updating with systematic consideration of the main cost components, from labour and materials through to equipment and market conditions.
Two elements of this wording are frequently overlooked. The first is the reference to prices current at the date of design approval, which anchors the valuation to a specific moment. The second is the nature of the obligation: case law and technical commentary read the provision as requiring contracting authorities to apply the regional price books precisely, not to treat them as indicative guidance.
Who prepares them and to what timetable
Price books are prepared by the territorially competent regions and autonomous provinces together with the local branches of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. A coordination panel also operates at the Ministry, chaired by the president of the Consiglio superiore dei lavori pubblici, the higher council for public works, with responsibility for surveying the state of the regional price books and defining a common template for price analysis.
The preparation timetable follows an annual cycle. Cost surveys and data collection close by 31 October, and any updates by 31 December of the year preceding the year of reference. A price book for a given year is therefore built on data gathered the previous autumn, and that time lag needs bearing in mind in the more volatile phases of the market.
Annex I.14 also requires price books to be made available free of charge on institutional websites, together with the analytical description leading to the determination of cost, in a format allowing usability. In practice this means publication in a readable format and in an interchange format importable into the main measurement software packages.
Which price book applies
The rule is territorial: the price book of the region or autonomous province in which the works are located applies. Three recurring cases warrant clarification.
| Situation | Applicable price book |
|---|---|
| Project within a single region | The price book of that region |
| Authority based in one region, works in another | The price book of the region where the works are executed |
| Project straddling two regions | The split must be documented, applying the territorially competent price book to each part |
| Authority with its own price book | Only where expressly authorised by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport |
The regions with special status and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano regulate the matter within their own autonomy, and the applicable price book must be identified in the local legislation. The applicable price book must therefore be checked case by case.
Annual validity and the transitional window
Price books cease to be valid by 31 December each year. A transitional regime exists, however: they may be used until 30 June of the following year for tender designs approved by that date.
This rule creates an operational window worth reading carefully. A design approved in the first half of the year may still rest on the previous year's price book, whereas a design approved after 30 June must rest on the current year's. The consequence for the designer is that the expected approval date should be considered before valuation begins, not afterwards: a bill built on a price book expiring before approval has to be revalued in full, and revaluation is not an automatic operation when item codes change between editions.
Moving from one edition to the next
Revaluing a bill against a new edition of a price book looks mechanical and is not. Between editions the item codes, their descriptions, their units of measurement and the associated measurement criteria may all change, and each of these calls for a different intervention.
| What changes | What it entails |
|---|---|
| The unit rate only | Value substitution. Can be automated |
| The code, with the description unchanged | Reference update. Must be tracked to preserve the correspondence |
| The description, with different work included | Item by item check. Complementary items may need adding or removing |
| The unit of measurement | Recalculation of the quantity on the new basis. Not an arithmetic conversion |
| The measurement criteria | Rereading the dedicated section and possibly redoing the take off for that category |
The first two rows resolve in a few hours on a bill of ordinary size. The last three can require substantial revision, and they are the reason for assessing the expected approval date against the expiry of the price book adopted.
One precaution reduces the cost of this exercise: keeping both the item code and the price book edition it came from in the working file, column by column. Without those references revaluation becomes an item by item search, and on a bill of several hundred lines the time required grows by an order of magnitude.
What to do when no updated price book exists
The law provides a substitution hierarchy. Where no updated price book exists, cost is determined by reference to official lists or the lists published by the local chambers of commerce, or failing that to current market prices for the location of the works.
Moving to a subsidiary source must be reasoned in the report and documented item by item. A determination at current market prices unsupported by traceable surveys is the most exposed position at verification stage.
How an item is read and applied
The typical structure of a regional price book separates rates for completed works from rates for elementary resources, meaning materials, plant hire and labour, often with a section devoted to the analyses underlying the completed works and a section reserved for measurement criteria and technical specifications. That separation is what makes price analysis possible.
That last section governs application. Before importing an item, check the territorial scope, the edition, the unit of measurement, the full description with work included and excluded, and the notes setting deductions and additions. An item whose description does not match the real conditions of the project should not be adjusted at discretion: it should be replaced by a new item determined through a reasoned analysis.
One specific point concerns labour. The labour costs estimated by the contracting authority under article 41 paragraph 13 relate solely to those costs and may not incorporate any other element. The distinction matters, because the price analyses used to determine the tender amount do include overheads and the contractor's profit: the two figures are not interchangeable, and confusing them produces errors in the separate declaration of personnel costs in the tender documents.
A framework in transition
The 2026 budget law provided for a national price book with a supporting and coordinating function in relation to the regional books, without replacing them. The mechanism depends on an implementing decree whose procedure has not been completed, and the operational reference therefore remains the regional prezzario. The state of play is set out in the dedicated page.
Note: the legislative references in this page relate to Italy and are current as at the date of publication. Price books are updated annually and public procurement rules change frequently: the versions in force should be checked before any operational use.