The announcement came earlier this week, and became official this Thursday. On this day, the Government sent the Chamber of Deputies a veto to the law prohibiting the cutting of basic services for non-payment in the context of a pandemic.
In an office sent to the President of the Corporation, Diego Paulsen, they noted that “the observations that are made do not alter the rules that ensure the provision of health, electricity and network gas services, as well as those that allow to face the difficulties in paying them; on the contrary, they make them compatible with the institutional order that allows, in time, to launch sustainable initiatives to protect people.”
In parallel, the Minister of Energy, Juan Carlos Jobet clarified that “these observations seek to improve the content of this law, facilitate its promulgation and subsequent execution for the benefit of people. They are ultimately looking to reaffirm what we have said since the beginning of the pandemic: there will be no cut of basic services, and those who need it will be able to postpone their bills without cost.”
“The Government launched the agreement with the companies, a plan that ensures that no family is cut off the supply of basic electricity and drinking water services during the pandemic, and that allows payments to be postponed in 12 interest-free installments.”
He added that “its initial 90-day deadline has been extended as the duration of the crisis has been extended, and was recently extended until mid-September (…) to this date there has been no outage of basic service supplies.”
