In the midst of the negotiation that the Government of
Javier Milei
is trying to establish with the governors to reach the signing of the May 25 Pact, a new storm front joined these days, after CAMMESA, the wholesale energy company, began to send letters to the governorates and provincial cooperatives
demanding payment of amounts owed, but also February service invoices that report increases of up to 150%
.
The controversy began with the case of Chubut, where the provincial government and five of its main cities, Comodoro Rivadavia, Trelew, Puerto Madryn, Rawson and Esquel, were ordered by the electricity wholesaler to pay
a total debt amounting to $58,919. millions
. This put Governor Ignacio Torres on alert, who is already coming off several short circuits with the Government of Javier Milei.
But what is happening in Chubut
is not an isolated case
because CAMMESA's offensive extended to all provincial electricity companies and cooperatives. In
Entre Ríos
, the Concordia cooperative carries a debt of about $1.7 billion and receives monthly invoices of about $500 million. ENERSA, which is the provincial energy company,
was only able to pay part of its last bill which amounted to almost $4.5 billion
and has a debt of $3.1 billion. After the announcement of the new tariff schedule, the state company resolved that users will be able to pay the bill in three payments.
Requests for embargoes to municipalities and provinces
What is striking is not that the wholesale company has decided to move forward with judicial injunctions against the electricity companies, since it is common to request the seizure of accounts or assets of these debtor firms; What is different is that
now the seizure of accounts and assets of the provinces or municipalities is requested
.
An example is the case of the 16 de Octubre Cooperative in Chubut, which in 2021 signed an agreement with CAMMESA to regularize its debt and last week, the wholesaler
requested an embargo for non-compliance with payments from the municipalities of Esquel and Trevelin
, which are the guarantors of the contract.
Inside, the unrest grows even more when it transpires that the distributors that operate in the AMBA maintain higher debts. EDENOR owes the wholesaler $127 billion, while EDESUR's liabilities amount to $72.5 billion.
When Sergio Massa was Minister of Economy, he wanted to include in the 2023 budget project an article that forced the provinces to regularize debts with CAMMESA under the threat of deducting the amounts owed from other items.
The initiative did not prosper
because the deputies, at that time, understood that the governorates could not take responsibility for the mismanagement of the cooperatives and the discussion was diluted in politics.
The wholesale price of electricity rises 150%
But an increase of 150% was added to the debts that the provincial companies and energy cooperatives maintain with the wholesaler. For example, in the case of the Formosa energy company, in the period from November 1 to 30, CAMMESA billed it a total of $1,516,566,038, with a subsidy of $1,524,612,508. Adding other charges, the bill did not reach $2 billion.
In the month of February, the company's bill, with a small growth in demand, went to $4,622,649,330, which with other items raised the total to $5,711,521,261, all with a subsidy of $4,211. 374,450, which is
for low-income residential sectors
. In the province governed by Gildo Insfrán, they still do not know how the increase will be transferred to users, especially in a territory where almost 70% of the population is public employees.
This phenomenon is not exclusive to Formosa. The senator of Chubut Carlos Linares published the case of the Comodoro Rivadavia distributor that in January received an
invoice for a total of $700,039,137 while the February invoice suffered a sharp increase and reached $1,765,236,775
.
In the Patagonian area it has a high impact and according to what was pointed out by Gustavo Monesterolo, head of the Chubut Public Services Regulatory Entity, it is estimated that the lowest categories, those users who pay the lowest amounts,
will pay an average that It will range between $30,000 and $40,000.
In the case of Puerto Madryn, for example, the energy cooperative ordered a 75% increase in the rate, but in the wholesale price there are different values: residential homes with subsidies will have increases of between 30% and 40% in that item, while residents with full rate the increase will be 100% like industrial users. The most affected are
the businesses that will experience variations between 300 and 400%
.
In Salta, Governor
Gustavo Sáenz ordered the suspension of the electricity service tariff update for 120 days
, which had been approved on January 31. The move can move the board and generate a precedent within the framework of a process of normalization of the debts that electricity distributors throughout the country maintain with CAMMESA.
This new conflict joins others open with the governorships over million-dollar funds, such as those provided by the Nation for teacher salaries, or those linked to transportation. And
it remains in doubt what will happen to the money that the Casa Rosada sent to retirement funds in 13 provinces
.
After a decree reported that these monthly shipments would be cut, the Government came out to clarify that the funds will be there, but after auditing them in ANSeS. The leaders of those districts, however, remain on guard and even
threaten to go to the Supreme Court if they suppress
.