EPE "recalculates" its budget for the impact of the dollar on inputs – Politics | Economa :: El Litoral – News – Santa Fe – Argentina

Cuts in Current Expenses

EPE "recalculates" its budget for the impact of the dollar on inputs

Its owner, Maximiliano Neri, said that costs have risen dramatically significant. He recalled that the agency does not receive Treasury contributions nor can borrow. He denied that the company was "a black box", and badured that the wage cost "does not move the subject's needle". The future of tariffs

Ivana Fux

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The EPE would transfer to its tariffs the increases that according to the Minister of Energy of the Nation, Javier Iguacel, would be generated in the second half, with increases of between 25 and 30 per cent, and Maximiliano Neri, the owner of the company, was confirmed in dialogue with El Litoral. Because of the macroeconomic situation; "

– Any increases announced by Iguacel will affect the province

– These are speculations and figures that are thrown out, but for the moment it is n & # 39; There is nothing concrete, obviously, if there is an increase in the wholesale energy market, it will have an impact on the energy cost of ECE because, currently, the half of our tariff composition is given by the cost of energy we buy.

It is inevitable then the transfer?

-Safe transfer is inevitable. How and when will certainly be defined according to what the national government establishes. We are waiting and waiting to see what the definition is, but the transfer involves the transfer of the cost of the nation to the bill because otherwise we would unbalance the economic performance of the company.

– On the basis of previous increases, the magnifying glbad on the EPE figures. Is the company a black box?

– Regarding the transparency and speculation that may exist regarding our numbers, it is important to understand that ECE has the public balance sheets we present each year. On the other hand, the governor decided to form a specific commission for two very important issues: to show the company's figures and to see how we set the rates that strongly influence the province's energy development policy . We must change this way of speculating a lot; You must show more. The company is open to showing their numbers and that is what we demonstrate. There is nothing to hide. We are also looking for greater efficiency. The EPE has gone through a period of investment in improving infrastructure and services, but this new step is to complete the search for other efficiency processes that continue to increase the good performance of the EPE.

-They are usually given as an example expensive salaries of the hierarchical staff of the company. How much does it represent in the mbad of ECE spending?

– Any cost that the company has is important and needs to be taken care of. Obviously, in what is the structure of a company as big as ECE, the cost of wages today is not what moves the subject's needle. We are also attentive to this and we are working on it. But there is no economic risk of ECE for the cost of wages or their hierarchy or their employees. It seems to me that in this case we would be the focus of discussion. We must concentrate; the company has many more opportunities to improve its efficiency and economic performance than the salary of its executives.

-What is the financial result of the company?

-Today, we must see how this will lead to all this macroeconomic imbalance that we are experiencing. We had organized a budget where one of the most important variables is the cost of our inputs that are in dollars. We set a budget, we project it according to a type of change that we have defined, and in the middle of the road, the cost of these inputs has varied a lot. This is also why people tend to steal materials (sic) because today the price of collecting is very high. And it is one of our essential inputs with aluminum. They are all dollar prices that are listed on international markets. As a result, today we are reorganizing the corporate budget because we have to recalculate. We must try to significantly reduce current expenses in some cases, and that is why we do not yet have the actual results (economic). But the goal of the company is to be balanced and not to have a deficit. That's what we aim for and we try to organize the structure in pursuit of it.

– Does EPE Receive Provincial Treasury Contributions Today?

-No. Since the management of Hermes Binner, the goal was that the EPE be self-sufficient. Today, we continue on this path. We do not receive any help from the provincial government and we hope to be able to do that so that the actual expenditures are also reflected in the bill. It's one of the different paths we chose to take. National government policies, besides the need to have a social tariff, have skewed the cost of energy production and now they want to solve everything in five minutes. The Province of Santa Fe has long laundered its costs

– Is it funded by the rate?

– Yes, it is basically the only financing of the company. Because we also do not have the possibility of getting into debt, which takes away degrees of freedom in terms of development planning. Otherwise, we could take credit at times when we want to postpone some work that will be amortized in twenty years. But not having this chance, these works today may already be incorporated into the tariff. EPE is a public company and can not be funded like that. We want to try to solve these problems.