Family budget: what is the timetable for the increase in electricity, gas and water prices

With the latest definitions of public service tariffs made official last week by the Ministry of Energy, a somewhat clearer picture of the increases that will be applied in the coming months to gas and electricity users is already drawn up. .

Although some increases are still to be known, such as the cost of electricity distribution, which will be applied during the months of April and June.

Starting this month, there will be increases in electricity tariffs, with price increases remaining unchanged until October, at an average of 17% for users in middle-income sectors and up 29% for high-income (or non-subsidy) sectors. ). In the case of businesses and industries, it reaches 36%.

Meanwhile, the low-income consumer group will experience no change.

The new rate schedules which are dated February 1, customers will see reflected in their bills in the coming weeks, depending on the service provider’s closing date.

To this increase will be added later – in April and June – the effect of the higher distribution cost (of the final price invoiced it represents approximately 20%) but only for AMBA users, customers of the Edenor and Edesur companies.

Although the percentage of the adjustment has not yet been disclosed, the Department of Energy assured GlobeLiveMedia which will be split into two installments and will cost less than $410 each.

On the other hand, the government has announced that the total abolition of subsidies for electrical energy users with the highest incomes of the population – it was scheduled for this month – has been postponed. One of the reasons given is the high percentage of customers included in this universe, while the estimate showed that there are many who did not apply for the subsidy, even if it would correspond to them.

According to the energy secretary, in this group there are 33% of users and it could be reduced to 24% of the total. This is why the registration to apply for subsidies (RASE) remains open and there will be a communication campaign to regularize the table.

Despite the fact that the data is cross-referenced between state agencies, the segmentation cannot be done compulsively and it is the user who must ask to keep the benefit.

According to a report by the consultancy Economía y Energía, currently the highest income users (tier 1) pay 71% of the seasonal electricity price. Measured in dollars, this amounts to approximately USD 46 per MWh when the price of energy without subsidy is USD 64 per MWh. Middle-income sectors (level 3) pay 29% of the total and low-income sectors (level 2) 23% of the total.

High-income users (tier 1) pay 71% of the seasonal electricity price (saving and energy)

The new wholesale energy prices will impact the final bill received by Tier 1 users by 29% for Edenor and Edesur (AMBA) customers, with average prices of $3,700 for 250 KWh consumption per month.

The percentage varies in the rest of the country: for those in Río Negro, the impact is 20% and the average bill is $4,977. For Mendoza, the increase is 15% and the average bill is $5,973; and for Salta, the adjustment is 13% and an average amount of $7,028 per month.

For natural gas service, there will be an increase of 28.3%, as explained by the Ministry of Energy. But in this case, the 3.5 million low-income users who maintain the subsidies for having registered for the RASE will not have adjustments on the gas value component (they will have increases on the transport and distribution).

The customer segmentation was composed as follows: Level 1 (higher income) and non-registered with 3.4 million; Tier 2 (low income) also 3.4 million; and Level 3 (middle income) with 2.3 million. In total, there are just over 9 million natural gas users in Argentina.

For users of the AySA water service, the timetable for the removal of subsidies has been implemented in different stages since November 2022. This segmentation, unlike gas and electricity, is not done according to income level, but rather according to the location of the dwellings (there is a coefficient).

For customers with high area coefficients, the removal of subsidies has already taken place and they pay the full price. Meanwhile, users of the average zonal coefficients maintain a subsidy of 20% of the tariff until February 28 and will start paying the full tariff from March 1.

And customers with medium-low area coefficients maintain a 30% subsidy until February 28. And then, from March, this state contribution is reduced to 15%, or half.

Users of the water service also have the possibility of requesting the maintenance of subsidies when their income is less than two basic baskets (currently around 305,030 dollars per month).

So far, nearly 50,000 users (49,200 in total) have registered to maintain the subsidy, of which 12,364 have been approved and the rest have been rejected for not meeting the requested requirements.

On the other hand, more than 30,000 users with a low area coefficient or social tariff will maintain the subsidy without having to register.

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