Martin Bidegaray
04/12/2021 19:20
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 04/12/2021 19:20
After a
two-year freeze,
gas rates will rise an average of 6% for households starting in May.
The
increase will be lower (4%) for SMEs,
according to Federico Bernal, controller of Enargas, the regulator of gas concessions.
"This will be the only increase for the
distribution and transportation rate
during 2021," said the official.
"If the times are given within the intervening agencies of the National Executive Power, (the increase) would be ready for the first week of
May,
" he added.
In this way, the Government
leaves the door open for another increase.
It would be the one corresponding to the cost of the gas itself.
That is, the part of the ballot that goes to pay for gas, which is the main cost.
There could be another raise, which the Executive Branch can promote.
Gas rates have been frozen since
April 2019,
when it was the last update.
Distributors had requested a
48-51% recomposition
, with a 15% impact on rates.
The amount awarded will be less.
If the new tariff tables are published in May, the effect on household spending will be in June.
The Ministry of Energy had expressed that it needed an increase of between
26% and 35%
in the bills, to be able to pay the gas that it promised to acquire through the gas plan.
The option was to resort to an extra subsidy of $ 56,083 million.
Economy Minister Martín Guzmán was leaning towards a double-digit increase in two parts.
Bernal's decision is a
one-time, average single-digit
increase
.
However, the door is open for there to be another recomposition.
Bernal clarifies that "transportation and distribution" will not have increases.
But in gas tickets, the main component is the PIST price (entry to the system).
There, the Ministry of Energy could propose an increase, which Enargas will have to study and decide whether to transfer to the final rate.
In Economy they imagined a recomposition of between 30% and 40% in order to maintain energy subsidies at around 1.7% of the budget.
To achieve this, it would be necessary to add another increase to 6% that the Enargas will now authorize.
The auditor advanced his decision to "El Cronista".
Consulted by
Clarín
, it confirmed that the increase is 6% "average", which may represent higher increases in some rate categories.
In the Gas plan, the Government promised to
buy 70 million cubic meters of gas
.
To continue subsidizing 60% of the cost of gas in the bills - as it has done so far - it needed $ 132,000 million, but the budget authorizes it in half.
However, the average 6% increase is likely to require an even greater fiscal effort.
At least, until there is an additional recomposition for the cost of the gas itself, if it happens.
"The budget is based on assumptions, it is always being modified through the reassignment of items," Bernal told
Clarín
in an interview a month ago.
Bernal has already communicated his decision of these increases to Guzmán, as confirmed by official sources.
"What happens if the subsidies are maintained, but there is a reorganization of the subsidy item, and suddenly there is something that is subsidized, you can save from there, put it elsewhere, so that the tariff impact is less? One may be complying with a limit that Guzmán talks about. And yet,
the rates do not have a certain type of increase, "
Bernal said a month ago.
"Is the budget a projection, right? And if we are unfortunately characterized by something, not this government, but all governments, it is because of the permanent changes that there are and
more with the pandemic problem on top, which has not ended
. So, What if there is a reorganization and a more efficient use as proposed and requested by the President of segmentation and use of subsidies, such that there is some change and the 1.7% or the limit that Guzmán puts, or that ceiling that Guzmán puts, it is fulfilled and we have an impact on rates that is less than the impact he has been talking about? Why not? ", he said.
