The electric company El Progreso de El Limón (EPDL)in Samaná province, denounced today that since the last government administration it has been subject to abuse by the Superintendence of Electricity (SIE), a situation that has caused great losses to the private capital institution.
The company maintains that since 2015 it has been forced by the SIE to apply a rate to its users that is completely irregular, since it is not the result of a rate study or an expert analysis, as expressly required by the Law for put electricity tariffs into effect, but is the product of an arbitrary exercise and without legal or technical basis by the SIE.
Likewise, it requires the application of a discount of 50% of the price of energy to about 91% of its customers through a social rate that does not reimburse the company for what is not billed, which generates a higher cash deficit in operation 50% of your total income, with respect to the amount you should be receiving under a regular rate regime.
The company energetic It assures that since 2015 the SIE has been indirectly applying this rate, and directly since 2018 it has been issuing monthly the same rate resolution, however, it fails to establish under what mechanism it will pay that deficit; which State agency or institution will do it and when that payment will be made.
The executives of the company said that, at the beginning of the current management of the SIE, they assured him that the situation would be reviewed and a solution would be given in accordance with the regulations in force, and attached to the business principles that should govern the electricity industry, But it has not been that way.
“Far from that, the current SIE has not only persisted in the errors of past administrations, but has also aggravated the case by flatly refusing to have any type of rapprochement or conciliation with EPDL, paralyzing the signing of the acknowledgment of the deficit that the previous management left pending approval in the Council of the SIE”.
In that sense, they said that the SIE has given this company discriminatory treatment compared to others that, being in a similar situation, have been recognized and paid the tariff deficit, such as the company Luz y Fuerza de Las Terrenas; “And also giving himself over to the task of filing unfounded charges against said company, trying to sanction it with millions in fines and thus bankrupt it and request the annulment of its concession contract.”
They stated that currently there is no possibility of having any channel of communication with the Government in cases like this one, in which a concessionaire with foreign capital is subjected to all kinds of economic pressures and injustices, where the legal security of the investments made during decades is in suspense.
About the company
The electric company El Progreso de El Limón is a commercial company with foreign capital, concessionaire of the public electricity distribution service in El Limón and other areas of the Samaná province.
It began operations in 1995. In 2002, with the entry into force of the General Electricity Law 125-01, it requested the adaptation of its operations to the new Law.
In 2012, it signed a definitive concession contract with the Dominican State for a period of 20 years.
