The Government defended the increase in electricity tariffs: “On the verge of collapse”

In a recent statement through social networks, the Secretary of Energy of the Nation, Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo, made a disclaimer about the worrying panorama of the sector and justified the increase in electricity rates. From next Thursday, January 1, electricity rates will reflect a high increase, as recently confirmed by the National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE), while the directors of the companies Edenor and Edesur requested an average increase of close to 90%. After the repercussion of the announcement, Chirillo used his social networks to defend the increase in fares. “Argentina’s electricity sector is on the verge of collapse after the interventionism applied during the last governments. Low tariff values led to high consumption,” he said. Likewise, the Secretary of Energy assured that “the rates do not reflect the real cost and cover only 45% of the wholesale market”, and in that line he pointed out that “many Argentines believed that they saved with these artificial prices, but they paid for it through subsidies from the Argentine State budget”. Subsidies must be focused on the most vulnerable sectors, establishing indispensable volumes of energy consumption to be subsidized, per bioenvironmental zone,” he remarked at the end of his remarks.

Original source in Spanish