New increases in electricity and gas are planned for September and October

Gas, electricity, fuel, prepaid, food, and so we can continue to list the increases that come for the next few months. The tank fills up with more and more weight and the supermarket cart comes out empty every month.

The loss of purchasing power of the inhabitants of Mendoza is an obvious reality. And increases in public services will continue to impact the ballots that reach homes under the door.

The national government confirmed that "between September and October" will apply a further increase in gas and electricity tariffs, and announced that the future increase will be defined on the basis of inflationary progress

The Minister of Energy Javier Iguacel, has ratified that the usual schedule of increases will be met (which sets two annual revisions) and that actions tend to eliminate economic subsidies.

"We will comply with the budgetary objectives we have set for ourselves.We want a competitive and strong energy sector that does not require public sector subsidies, with the sole exception of the social tariff "said the official.

In this way, Iguacel revealed the priorities of his management at the head of the Ministry of Energy, which began in the middle of last month, when the president Mauricio Macri appointed him to replace Juan José Aranguren.

flamboyant minister avoided specifying the percentages of the next increases and simply pointed out that many of the components that are included in service tickets, such as those that refer to transportation and distribution are already corrected and all that remains is to update us by the advance of inflation.

"That is, there are no more increases except inflation," he said about the articles, which he said calculated, e the values ​​ that are observed to define the final price on the tickets.

However, Iguacel warned that "the other half" service bills corresponds to the cost of production. And in this sense, he acknowledged that "we still import a lot of gas" and also "fuel to produce electricity".

"The difference between the cost of production, that is, what we pay today or less: 2 to 1. In other words, it costs us twice what we pay then we must continue with a correction. "

Iguacel insisted that " half " of the future increase will match the inflation update, whose breakthrough broke the old goal 15% and, according to private forecasts, would aim to close the year to 30%.

The Minister also slipped part of his strategy to reduce the impact of triggered dollar-related increases, which has gained about 9 pesos on the local market since the currency crisis reached early May

Iguacel anti will eliminate State intervention in future energy contracts from September The bet is to remove the obstacles to promote competition: "we will go with this system to see up to # 39, where we go in prices, which in dollars, in principle for the competition, will be a little lower than what we have today, "he said. 19659002] Provincial Review

Today a public hearing will be held to determine distributors' fees and, whether or not they correspond, an increase of ] item VAD. It should be remembered that the electricity bill of Mendoza is composed as follows: Cost of supply and transport (from l & # 39; national interference) and is the element that is modified according to the dollar and inflation . Then by the value-added distribution (VAD) (of provincial interference) and the third which is Tax. In the total invoice price, 33% of the cost corresponds to VAD, 33% to the cost of supply and the rest to taxes.

In the case of the VAD today, a public hearing will be held to inform and hear opinions on the tariff proposals determined by Provincial Electric Regulator for the fifth tariff period as of [1eraoût1945] 1 August 2018.

In addition, the tariff of the concessionaires of the public service of distribution of electrical energy of the province of Mendoza will also be defined, by this that the article "Value-added distribution of dealers will be the reason for the treatment" of the public utility power distribution of the province of Mendoza. "

After this meeting, it will be badyzed whether this element is augmented or not.