There is concern about the sharp increases in rates for essential public services such as electricity, gas, water, and transportation. The new values are arriving just with the disorderly, and in some cases, uncontrolled, liberation of prices of goods and services.
There was no alternative to balance the new values, given the cultural shift introduced by energy populism over the past 20 years. This cultural change consisted of making the population believe that public services were a right that could be accessed by paying much lower prices for them than their costs. The current administration has decided that rationality returns to services, assuming the emerging political costs whose magnitude will be closely linked to the degree of understanding reached by users, regarding the fallacy into which populism put them. The price, according to the law, is free and should depend on costs and the local and international market. I say it should because they still have shortcomings, a holdover from the interventionist past. Before 2003, there were no subsidies or distortions in regulated prices. The middle class will have to make a great effort, not only economically but also to change some of their habits. The level of subsidies to be allocated to the poorest segment of the population that is not in a position to pay for basic gas and electricity consumption remains to be defined. The State will save billions of dollars by eliminating subsidies, but it will also increase revenue by maintaining the tax percentage, around 25%, on the new rates. I believe that, at least temporarily, it should reduce that percentage or establish, as in fuels, an adjustable value independent of the rate. As for companies, which will regain profitability and repay debts, they should moderate their compensation transferable to rates, resorting to financing systems that allow them to be distributed over time. It would not be fair if the entire weight of the adjustment fell only on the already exhausted users. With the normalization of services, the other two protagonists of the sector will also benefit, the State and companies.