The former executive vice president of the CDEEE said that what subsidies teach the population is not to pay for services, so that culture has to change
Businessman Celso Jose Marranzini favored yesterday that there be a dismantling of the subsidies, this when referring to the rejection that the increase in the price of electrical energy would have had in the population due to the fulfillment of the gradual dismantling measure agreed in the Electric Pact, but that the Government has postponed.
“I favor dismounting in every way. I’m not telling you to do it now in the midst of a crisis, but what subsidies teach the population is not to pay,” said the former executive vice president of the Dominican Corporation of State Electric Companies (CDEEE).
He understands that the distributors have to “definitely” improve their operation, but that the population must understand the sacrifice that has been made to now maintain not only the cost of the electricity tariff, but also that of fuel prices.
“The Dominican does not understand what the international crisis is at the moment. What we have done to keep the price of energy in check. The subsidy is huge. We have to understand that there is an international crisis that the Government has not generated,” he specified.
He pointed out that the Punta Catalina Thermoelectric plant used to buy coal at US$60 a ton and now has come to buy coal at US$140 a ton, as a result of the international crisis.
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“We are well above many of the other countries with single-digit inflation, 5.5% growth,” he said.
He said that Dominicans have a bad habit of not paying for electricity, which costs the country money.
“It is a historical custom. When they set up a meter for you and you did not pay, then you protest, ”she explained.
Celso Marranzini recognized that now the country has 100% electricity, very different from when he was in charge of the CDEEE, which had 85%.
other plants
The businessman pointed out that to supply the demand for energy, more power plants are needed in the country.
“Unfortunately the process of building plants stopped with Punta Catalina, an important addition to the electrical system,” he said.
He understands that in 2018 another plant should have been tendered, because the last addition was in 2012.
Marranzin said the lack of other plants creates a supply problem. There is a very precarious balance between supply and demand,” he noted.
