On Tuesday the Government will sign the resolutions making the increase in natural gas tariffs by network starting from Monday 1 Aprilwith the removal of subsidies for high-income families, businesses and industries. The price of gas will triple at least next month and will jump further between May and September.
The increase in bills will be felt especially in the winter period, when increased consumption will be combined with the rise in energy prices.
The official definition arrives two months late. The Ministry of Energy and the National Gas Regulatory Agency (Enargas) had everything ready to apply the increases in February, but the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, lowered the order to wait to try anchor inflation at the lowest levels.
Due to the fiscal situation, the government has to lower the figure energy subsidies– and given the context of the sector, the decision could no longer wait.
THE Energy Resolution 41/2024to which he agreed Clarion exclusively, establishes the new wholesale gas prices (at the Transportation System Entry Point, PIST), which are part of the mix supply of local production and imports. It is important to clarify that gas represents only a part of the bill, also made up of transport, distribution and tax margins.
This newspaper has consulted official sources on what the direct impact of this resolution will be on users, but has so far received no answers from the authorities.
Level 1 (N1) homes of the segmentation and “General Service P” users (non-domestic uses) will see the price of gas they paid triple in April, to values between $2.79 per million BTU and US $2.95, depending on the province in which they reside.
Meanwhile, N2 (low-income) residential users will pay between $0.74 and $0.78 per million BTU in April. N3s (low incomes), on the other hand, will pay between $1.10 and $1.17 for subsidized consumption blocks, and the same amounts as N1s and “Ps” for the rest of the demand.
Between May and September, gas prices will rise further, depending on the area, between 4.26 and 4.50 dollars per million BTU. The resolution sets these values for N1 families and for the rest of users, even if it does not specify what the subsidy mechanism will be for low and medium income families, in a period in which the Basic Energy Basket (CBE) should be already in force., new method of allocating state resources.
According to what the Government presented at a public hearing, in December 2023 households ended up paying only 17% of the average cost of supplying gas to the system: 70 cents per million BTU on $4.10. This was the effect of the four-year delay and devaluation of the peso against the dollar at the end of 2023.
The companies had asked in the public hearing in January for an improvement in their revenues of over 500%, to clear the tariff arrears accumulated since the beginning of 2019 and only mitigated on several occasions by the previous Government, which has always set tariffs in step with the evolution of inflation as a tool to guarantee users an “indirect salary”.
The update was finalized this Tuesday afternoon with industry executives.
Source: Clarin
