:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/IVAPNGDUJ5HZZK4FGBOVFOA33A.jpg "Daniel Quintero will insist on freezing EPM rates, despite the decision of the Council of State")
The Mayor of Medellin, Daniel Quintero, insists on the need to freeze EPM’s tariffs. This, despite the decision taken recently by the Council of State on the extraordinary functions which had been granted to the President of the Republic to assume the regulation and control of public services.
In the afternoon of Thursday March 2, the Council of State confirmed the suspension of the decree which granted President Gustavo Petro the functions of assuming control of public services in the country.
With the above, the proposal that the mayor of Medellín had made in recent days and which had even already advanced in a meeting with President Gustavo Petro, at the Casa de Nariño, would be completely baseless.
However, Daniel Quintero assured that he would continue to fight to freeze EPM’s tariffs, seeking to relieve Colombians who currently have access to the public services offered by the company.
“We will continue to fight for the freezing of utility rates despite the fact that the Council of State has suspended the regulatory functions of the president”, wrote Daniel Quintero on his Twitter account.
It should be recalled that Quintero’s proposal came after President Gustavo Petro was empowered to take over the regulation of public services in Colombia.
With the above, the General Manager would have the general functions of Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission (Creg) and the Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation Regulation Commission (BOW).
The Head of State had already indicated that he would exercise these functions for the benefit of the civilian population due to changes in electricity and water tariffs in Colombia.
Therefore, the mayor of Medellín sent a letter to the president in which he requested authorization to freeze the tariffs of the public services offered by EPM in different territories of the country. The main objective of this proposal was to relieve the pocket of the Colombians.
“As rulers, it is increasingly difficult to sleep easy when we see how much the cost of living has increased for our fellow citizens: the markets are worth double, gasoline continues to rise, and services public have irrational prices, making ends meet is getting harder and harder for families, especially the poorest,” Daniel Quintero said in the letter.
Subsequently, he asked Petro for a guarantee to freeze rates. This measure would impact territories such as Medellín, Antioquia, Córdoba, Bolívar, Sucre, Santander, Norte de Santander, Caldas Quindío, Risaralda, Quibdó, Providencia and Santa Marta.
The President of the Republic opened a space in his diary and on the night of Tuesday, February 28, he received Daniel Quintero and the general manager of the Empresas Públicas de Medellín, Jorge Andrés Carrillo, at the Casa de Nariño.
Among the conclusions of the meeting, it was established that a technical team from the national government would evaluate Daniel Quintero’s proposal. The objective was to establish whether this advantage would not affect, among other things, the financial stability of the entity.
“We are going to take the next step with its technical team where we will deepen the proposal so that we can soon move forward on it for all citizens,” explained Daniel Quintero.
However, with the recent announcement by the State Council, Petro no longer has the power to make decisions on the control and regulation of utilities in the country, so Quintero’s proposal would have lacked ground.
In recent days, it was also known that the mayor of Bucaramanga, Juan Carlos Cardenasproposes to freeze the water service tariff.
During the installation of the ordinary sessions of the Council, the local president assured that taking this measure for a time would contribute to the solution of certain problems of the city.
“Being able to freeze water tariffs in the next six or 12 months, so that helps to curb the cost of living, inflation,” he said during his speech. The proposal will be studied by the board of directors of the aqueduct.