The Government has decided again postpone a traumatic situation: increase in transport rates public (buses and trains) in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area (AMBA). Furthermore, he claims standby THE definition of gas tariffs with the removal of subsidies to millions of homes.
To continue on the path to reducing inflation, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo decided not to apply the 36.6% increase. (the cumulative change in prices at national level in the first two months) on train and bus tickets since April.
The update mechanism is not automatic, so possibly The government may apply the increase at a later date in the year. But the legislation establishes that the adjustments will have a minimum periodicity of two months. As the last one was in February, the minimum fares of AMBA buses could have risen in April to $368.82 – from the current $270 -, and those of trains to $177.58 – today to $130.
However, the increase remains stable for users who do not have a registered SUBE card. Starting next month, the minimum fare will cost $420 on trains and $430 on buses.
When does the gas rate increase?
Meanwhile, gas transportation and distribution companies were waiting for the rate increase to be made official this Friday. However, the resolutions were not published and company directors like Metrogas, Naturgy, Camuzzi, Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN) and Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGN), among others, say they have no news from the Ministry of Energy and the National Gas Regulatory Body (Enargas) on what the tariff increase will look like. We are now awaiting publication in the Official Journal next week.
Regulated companies asked in January to get an upgrade of more than 500% of their -Value Added Distribution, VAD- margins. And the national state wants to take advantage of this to lower subsidies on the price of gas, given that in December users paid only a sixth of the cost of supply: 70 cents per million Btu on 4.10 dollars. If both effects were combined, the tariff increase could reach up to 743%, calculates the consultancy firm EcoGo.
These days the Government is finalizing the definition and valorisation of the Basic Energy Basket (CBE) which contains “reasonable” consumption based on each family – composition of members, region, time of year.
Technicians are extremely cautious about how to apply the elimination of subsidies to millions of families, because the fear is that Supreme Court of Justice re-tie the knot of the economic program – as in 2016 with Mauricio Macri – and force the dismantling of the increases and give “graduality” to the plan.
Source: Clarin
