The Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, considered this Monday that rate updates according to income segmentation as proposed by the national government “does the country good” and questioned the current level of energy subsidies, equivalent to “3 or 4 points of the Product”, due to its impact on the fiscal deficit, on the eve of the first of the three public hearings to analyze the proposals to increase electricity services. gas and electricity.
The head of the Palacio de Hacienda stressed the need to avoid a new increase in subsidies to the energy sector, which last year exceeded one billion pesos, and questioned “in which country in the world has it worked, to channel a path of development with social inclusion, to have energy subsidies for 3 or 4 points of the Gross Domestic Product”.
This Tuesdaystarting at 10 and through the Webex platform, the first public hearing convened by the Secretary of Energy to discuss the new natural gas prices at the Point of Entry to the Transportation System (PIST), for which the agenda includes the participation of 38 exhibitors, who will have 5 minutes each.
On Wednesday the new reference values for the Seasonal Price of Electricity (PEST) will be discussed, and on Thursday the implementation of the segmentation of energy price subsidies by the National State to gas service users will be discussed natural and electric power service, for the biennium 2022-2023.
Guzman noted that “The government has decided on a course of action and it will continue on that basis.”
As on previous occasions, the minister said that “non-segmented energy subsidies favor the rich.”
For this reason, he stated that in the Government they are “fully convinced” that tariff segmentation “does the country good.”
On the other hand, unions and consumer associations today called for a “thorough analysis” and a “thorough” review of the costs of gas production and electricity generation before a possible rate increase is defined.
Through a request published in various graphic media, with the title “The pocket of the Argentines does not support another increase in rates”, they said that the value of these must be “reasonable”, with “reasonable levels of business profits ” also.
The note was signed by the CGT Federal Workers’ Current, the Workers’ CTA, the Assembly of Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (Apyme), the Buenos Aires Chamber of Entrepreneurs for the Strengthening of Value Chains (Focava), the Association of Defense of Users and Consumers (Deuco), Argentine Civil Association of Electrodependents; the Federation of Social Economy Workers (Fetraes); and the Study Center for the Promotion of Equality and Solidarity (Cepis), among others.
“Removing subsidies to carry out an increase in rates without thoroughly analyzing the real costs of the companies implies consolidating a policy that has been detrimental to the Argentine people,” highlights the request in one of its main paragraphs.
Regarding the hearings that will begin on Tuesday, for residential users It will be considered a “rate correction related to the evolution of your income”, represented by the salary variation coefficient (CVS), as established by Law 27,443, frustrated by the total veto imposed by the Cambiemos administration, the Energy Secretariat specified.
In this way, the scheme proposed for the 2022-2023 biennium contemplates that gas users who benefit from the social rate will not have another increase in their bill this year, and by 2023, this correction will be equivalent to 40% of the CVS for the year. previous.
Meanwhile, for the beneficiaries of the social rate of the electricity distributors Edenor and Edesur, the new rate correction for 2022 will not exceed 6%.
For the rest of the users, the total increase in the invoice for each calendar year will be equivalent to 80% of the Salary Variation Coefficient corresponding to the previous year.
Based on this scheme, by 2022 and considering the tariff update carried out in March, the proposed increase for June will be an average of 17% for the electricity tariffs of AMBA users, and an average of 21.5% over the current value. of the bill for gas users throughout the country.
Lastly, the band of 10% of users with the highest income and with full payment capacity will no longer be beneficiaries of the energy consumption subsidy, for which five criteria were determined that could be applied to gas and electricity customers with higher incomes. .
