Buenos Aires, January 30 (NA) – Public service tariffs will suffer significant increases starting February 1st as a result of a series of measures taken by the national government to reduce subsidies. The most significant will be the gas tariff, which will have an average increase of 16.86% nationwide. In the case of electricity in the areas served by EDENOR and EDESUR, the increase will be 3.59%, according to data accessed by the Argentine News Agency. The reasons for this increase are: Monthly fee for the Five-Year Tariff Review; Monthly increase due to the formula (IPIM + IPC) so that tariffs do not lose value; Application of the new SEF subsidy scheme; Application of a unified/fixed gas price throughout the year. This causes a one-time jump in February, but in a month of very low gas consumption. The national government explained that “it seeks to give the user predictability so that in the months where they need to consume the most gas (winter), the price does not skyrocket”. According to the official interpretation, “seasonal bill shocks are thus avoided throughout the year”. According to calculations carried out by the Secretariat of Energy, some examples of increases are as follows: The largest residential category (R1), which represents 42% of total users (almost 4 million users), will have increases of 3,000 pesos or less. Approximately 1 in 5 users will have an increase of less than 1,000 pesos. For the first 4 residential categories (70% of total gas users nationwide), increases average between 960 and 6,400 pesos. For the remaining residential categories with higher consumption (30% of the total), increments range from 2,900 to 11,300 pesos on average.
