The minimum household income increases to apply for electricity and gas subsidies in August

For the increase of the total basic basket (a $ 104,217), the minimum limit to maintain subsidies for electricity and gas will increase in August. This means households with net income (out of their own pockets). $ 364,759 they will be able to ask the Secretary of Energy to keep the subsidies to the ballot papers.

The government wants all families to be registered in the grant register. there, andn Based on your income and assets, customers can keep state subsidies for electricity and gas costs. The first phase of registration closes on Tuesday. In 10 days, people could be logged based on the latest number of their ID card.

But, due to the number of families, it is estimated that there will be a extension in the grant lists. The official goal is to reach between eight and nine million customers, but so far it is on track to reach half of them.

During this month, the “minimum” to maintain benefits is for families with a net income (in hand, out of their own pockets) of $ 348,000. If the government extension extends only to the end of the month, the change in the base basket will have no impact. On the other hand, if they extend the deadline for registering benefits until August, families would benefit from having a larger amount to maintain benefits, with net income of up to $ 365,000.

The registry allows you to keep the contributions in your electricity and gas bills until the end of the year. Because the state subsidizes more than 80% of the cost of electricity and gas in the bill. Families with incomes below $ 348,000 (July) – $ 365,000 (August) can apply to the executive branch to keep them.

People who don’t fill out the form will lose their benefit. As the state will remove that subsidy, their tickets will have an increase of up to 300%. The government avoids details in this regard. But a current ticket of $ 2,000 (in electricity) is believed to rise to $ 6,000 or more.

According to data released by the government, only 3% of those who applied in the registry declared an income that justifies the loss of the subsidy. The official estimate is that almost 10% of households (920,000 of electricity and 760,000 of gas) are able to bear the full cost of the services. This would indicate that most families who make $ 348,000, or own three properties or three cars, are not filling out the form directly.

Grant applicants are divided into groups: high, middle and low income. The last two will keep the state benefit, at least until the end of the year. For 2023, the Executive is studying some removals for the medium sectors.

The Secretary of Energy has promised a new tariff table for electricity and gas from the beginning of August. With this scheme, you have to instruct the regulators of these services to apply them. The next step is for regulators to notify distributors about customers who will lose subsidies.

The companies (Metrogas, Naturgy, Edenor, Edesur in Buenos Aires) will notify customers that they will have increases, because the nation state will remove the subsidies. But the price will be decided by the Ministry of Energy,

So far this year, electricity and gas tariffs have risen by 42% for most customers. For the lowest-income sectors, it was half (21%). An increase is now proposed for the upper sectors, which could be around 300%.

The Executive does not want to give percentage figures for the increase, for fear that we will start talking about “price increases”. All he said is that an average electricity bill will increase by $ 1,200 per month.