Martin Bidegaray
09/17/2021 9:45 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 9/17/2021 9:45 AM
The Government projects
energy subsidies for $ 964,000 million
for 2022, according to the Budget bill.
Will you meet those numbers?
To do so, it will
have to advance with increases in electricity and gas rates
higher than those of this year.
In this year's budget, which the Ministry of Economy sent in September 2020, energy subsidies were set at $ 623,000 million.
But the Executive Power headed in a direction of higher spending, and this year ends up spending more than $ 900,000 million in that sense.
It allocated almost 50% more than budgeted to maintain the ironed rates.
The Frente de Todos
presented this decision as one of the reasons for voting for its candidates
in the last elections.
Economy estimates an annual inflation of 33%.
Instead, he estimates that energy subsidies
will rise less than 8%.
The non-compliance in the 2021 subsidies (the $ 623,000 million scheduled versus the $ 900,000 million that will be the final ones) is justified in that
the increases were lower than what the Minister of Economy
, Martín Guzmán,
thought
.
The civil servant calculated increases around the inflation - to which it projected in 29% -.
But
gas rose 6%
and
electricity climbed 9%
in Buenos Aires.
In order for the budget to be met in 2022, it
will be necessary to apply rises
.
The budget advises that
the rate
will be sought
to cover 43% of
electricity
costs
,
instead of the current 30%
.
To achieve this, the government will have to accept increases.
In some cases,
these increases would be around 40% or more
in middle-class sectors, to reach the accounts presented by the Economy.
In the Executive Power
there is a plan to adjust the rates
, to be implemented after the elections.
It is
a segmentation
, whereby the level of increase would be different depending on the characteristics of the consumers.
A good part of the year was studied.
The Secretary of Energy, Darío Martínez, expressed that it is useless "to
have the rates frozen" for another year
.
So far, Martinez's impact on rates
has been limited
.
The Undersecretary of Electric Energy, Federico Basualdo, decided on a 9% increase in electricity rates.
Angry with that decision, Guzmán asked for his resignation and was unsuccessful.
In gas, the increase granted so far was 6%.
Federico Bernal, inspector of Enargas, was going to advance in a new public hearing if ordered to do so by the Secretary of Energy.
In March 2021, when Guzmán envisioned an increase in gas close to 35%, Bernal said that “the Budget is based on assumptions,
it is always being modified
through the reallocation of items.” That is what ended up happening.
The question of the specialists in public services is if in 2022 the film of 2021 will be repeated. That is,
if again more funds will be allocated than those allocated to keep the rates frozen
.
Several experts comment informally on it, because they are preparing work on it.
The current dispute between the officials most aligned with President Alberto Fernández and the flag bearers with Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner could also carve in the decisions.
Until now, Basualdo and Bernal - chosen by Cristina Kirchner for those positions - have tilted the decisions of the Executive Power towards their points of view, with increases of 6% to 9%, as seen this year.
The continuity of both was questioned by official sources on energy issues, but neither of the two confirmed whether he is going or staying, in response to inquiries from this newspaper.
Minister Guzmán is negotiating an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
In that understanding, the reduction of subsidies is one of the beams, several economists believe.
If Guzmán comes out stronger from the disagreements between the President and Vice President, he will have a better chance of applying the corrections he deems appropriate.
NE
Look also
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The keys to the Budget that Martín Guzmán put together and unleashed the wrath of Cristina Kirchner