Gas fee: increase of more than 300% begins to take effect

After the gas increases in April, the government approved a new tariff schedule for all distributors in the country, as reported by Filo.new. The new values will take effect in May and until September 30. The increase that was implemented from April represents an average jump of 300%. There, the Government alleged that the increases correspond to the “emergency” of the energy sector, declared in the mega DNU on December 16, 2023. “It is appropriate to proceed with a transitory adjustment of gas transmission and distribution tariffs in order to maintain, in real terms, the income levels of the providers, so that they allow them to cover investment needs with the required quality standards, guaranteeing the sustainability of the public service until the time of entry into force of the tariff tables resulting from the tariff review process,” points out the Gas Regulatory Entity in the 10 resolutions it published. According to the information provided by the official agency, on average, high-income households will see their bill increase from $2,961 to $9,271; low-income earners, from $838 to $2,462; and middle-income earners, from $1,975 to $6,375. However, this component is only one of the three factors that impact bills. Likewise, Enargas also published the increases corresponding to the transport and distribution components, which represent around 35% of the total cost of invoices. In this sense, it should be noted that there is no longer segmentation in the charging of the service, so the increase will be uniform for all users. “Gas subsidies were directed at supply, not demand, resulting in those who did not need it receiving subsidies,” the Energy Ministry said in a statement. Another important fact is that in addition to this increase, from May they will be adjusted monthly due to the impact of the dollar on the price of gas and inflation on the remuneration of transporters and distributors. This is specified in the Official Gazette: “for the purposes of transferring gas prices to the tariff schedules of natural gas distribution services through networks, the SECRETARIAT OF ENERGY instructed ENARGAS to carry out the conversion to dollars per million BTUs using a factor of 27.10473; and that the exchange rate to be used for the transfer of gas prices to tariffs is the average value of the selling exchange rate of the BANCO DE LA NACIÓN ARGENTINA (Currencies) observed between the 1st and 15th of the month immediately prior to the transfer of prices (Article 5)”.

Original source in Spanish