The Government once again decided
to postpone
a traumatic situation: the
increase in public transportation rates
(buses and trains) in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA).
In addition, it keeps
the
definition of gas rates on
standby
with the
removal of subsidies
from millions of homes.
To continue on the path of lowering inflation, the Minister of Economy,
Luis Caputo, decided not to apply an increase of 36.6%
(the price variation accumulated at the national level in the first two months)
in train and bus tickets
since April.
The update mechanism is not automatic, so
the Government may eventually apply the increase later
in the year.
But the regulations establish that the adjustments will have a minimum periodicity of two months.
As the last one was in February, the AMBA's minimum bus fares could have gone up in April to $368.82 - from the current $270 -, and those for trains, to $177.58 - today at $130.
However,
the increase for users who do not have their SUBE card registered remains firm
.
Starting next month, the minimum fare will cost $420 on trains and $430 on buses.
When does the gas rate increase?
Meanwhile, gas transportation and distribution companies were waiting for the rate increase to be made official this Friday.
However, the resolutions were not published and the directors of firms such as
Metrogas, Naturgy, Camuzzi, Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN) and Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGN)
, among others, say they have no news from the Secretariat. of Energy and the National Gas Regulatory Entity (Enargas) on what the rate increase will be like.
Now they wait for the publication in the Official Gazette to be next week.
Regulated companies asked in January to obtain an update of more than 500% in their margins -Value Added Distribution, VAD-.
And the national State wants to take advantage of this to lower subsidies on the price of gas, since in December users paid only one sixth of the supply cost: 70 cents per million BTU over US$ 4.10.
If both effects were combined,
the increase in rates could reach up to 743%, the consulting firm EcoGo calculated
.
These days, the Government is finishing defining and valuing the Basic Energy Basket (CBE) that contains "reasonable" consumption according to each household - composition of members, region, time of year.
The technicians are extremely cautious in how to apply the elimination of subsidies to millions of households, because the fear is that the
Supreme Court of Justice
will once again tie the knot of the economic program - as in 2016 to Mauricio Macri - and force the increases to be rolled back and provide "gradualism" to the plan.
NE