The social rate that Macri left is only enough for the …

“The social rate has ceased to be such to become a small gift.” All that is needed is for the pilot light to be on. For six months, gas consumption greater than that has already exceeded coverage. “The current social pricing system is inequitable, unequal and promotes fuel poverty”. The lapidary diagnosis appears in the conclusions of a document by specialists Claudio Boada and Fernanda Lacey, directors of the Union of Users and Consumers, who presented in the context of the debate the next increases in public services that the Government will define.

There are two problems with the social gas tariff that experts identify: the number of people with access to the benefit has dropped significantly, from 1.7 million to 1 million, and the drop in the vote on the tariff has fallen to its minimal expression. Currently, families who pay social tariffs pay between 10 and 20% less than the rest of the users, while the reduction should not be less than half.

“The social tariff has slowly faded until it represents a small discount in the total of the invoice, or disappear directly when the consumption limits are exceeded ”, warns the document.

The social tariff became relevant at the start of Mauricio Macri’s government due to sidereal increases in electricity and gas. In the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the social rate had a marginal impact because the determining factor was the subsidies paid by the state, which made the bills themselves low, accessible to the popular sectors.

The change imposed by the Cambiemos government (now Together for Change) in tariff policy, with the removal of subsidies and an increase in tariffs, generated an explosion in demand for the social tariff.

The universe of beneficiaries, since then, includes retirees and retirees, workers in a situation of dependency and monotributists who receive a gross remuneration of up to two minimum wages, registered in the social monotax, employees of private residences, people benefiting from unemployment insurance, holders of social programs, invalids and holders of a lifetime pension to be veterans.

The initial scheme implemented by Cambiemos established that residential users “in a situation of socio-economic vulnerability” would benefit from a reduction of one hundred percent on the price of natural gas, by paying the costs of transmission and distribution.

With this program, energy poverty increased rapidly anyway, because the increases were so violent that the social tariff did not end up amortizing them for large sectors of society.

“Hundreds of thousands of users have stopped using these services due to the inability to pay the fees. There has been a huge decline in access to natural gas and electricity services, ”recall Boada and Lacey.

However, instead of seeking a solution to these situations of exclusion from essential services, the Macri government has done the opposite. Since 2018, it has reduced the coverage of the social tariff in the two plans mentioned above: number of people affected and amount of the benefit.

In November 2017, after winning the midterm elections, the Cambiemos government began to apply stricter exclusion criteria and stopped subsidizing 100% of the price of natural gas. Instead, he established that the bonus would be applicable on minimum consumption blocks. This policy deepened after the emergency credit Macri requested from the IMF.

The consequence is that from 1.7 million users who paid the social gas tariff in 2016, it fell to less than one million in December 2019.. Currently, after removing some of the barriers to accessing the benefit, 1,035,000 pay the social gas tariff. The land to be recovered, as we can see, is still relevant today.

The other key decision that the Let’s Change leadership made in 2018 was to limit the subsidy to an extremely low level of consumption.. In total, families should not use more than 501 cubic meters of gas per year. The monthly pro rata, for reasons of seasonality, determines that in January and February users can spend a maximum of 15 cubic meters. “This is equivalent to the pilot flame of a water heater. Only the pilot flame consumes 0.5 cubic meters per day, ”the report says. I mean, in these months you don’t have to do the dishes or bathe in hot water to be covered by the social tariff.

Almost the same thing happens during the months of March, when the maximum consumption with the social tariff is 20 cubic meters; November, with 23 cubic meters, and April, with 28. In May and September, they are 54 and 55 cubic meters, respectively, and during the winter months, between 73 and 89 cubic meters.

“In conclusion, the social tariff which in March 2016 covered one hundred percent of the price of gas only lasted a year and a half. He then covered a few cubic meters per month; something difficult to accomplish if you intend to heat a house during the winter months. Clearly It ceased to be a social royalty and became a small document which is given as a reward to users who do not turn on more than the pilot of the water heater, ”denounce the leaders of the users and consumers union.

Their claim is to produce a break in these policies implemented by macrismo and to guarantee universal access to basic services.. For the rest of the users, in addition, they reject any increase in tariffs as long as the pandemic lasts, which comes up against the fiscal restrictions of the State, they argue within the economic cabinet.

“We have the opportunity and we are convinced that it is time to reorganize the pricing system and to work seriously so that the social tariff covers the needs of many families in vulnerable situations. Public home services are human rights, we must work to ensure that prices are fair, reasonable and affordable for all users ”, argue Boada and Lacey.

There are different views within government on the issue. Enargas’ supervisor, Federico Bernal, is pushing in the same direction as the user entities and has in fact been the promoter of the removal of several of the exclusion criteria from the social rate. ANSES, where the service is managed, is on the same wavelength. On the other hand, the Ministry of Energy, which now reports to Minister Martín Guzmán, shows less enthusiasm for this task. The definition expressed by the Minister of keeping the subsidies to public services constant will require improvements in their distribution, at a minimum, if the popular sectors that Macri came under is to recover reasonable levels of gas and electricity consumption.