CALF: Bad tariff practices

2023-12-07 03:20:00

Enrique Omar Driussi, DAYS 12,638,127
Neuquen

The concept of rate only corresponds to the fee that a consumer or user must pay to use a certain service, for example, the electricity rate.

I am one of the thousands of users outraged by the decision of the Neuquén political corporation – taken behind the backs of the people -, by which the CALF Cooperative can include in the electricity rate additional – and unrelated – concepts, such as the debt with CAMMESA (Company Administrator of the Wholesale Electrical Market SA), the collection of water service and the cost of moving the Neuquén Environmental Complex.

The questions are logical, from a legal and technical point of view: Why are compliant taxpayers, who do not owe any payment for electricity consumption to CALF, going to have to take responsibility for a debt with CAMMESA generated by the poor administrative management of the politicians in power?

Why is CALF going to charge for water service, if the EPAS (Provincial Water and Sanitation Entity) has a commercial management that manages the collection of its bill through different modalities?

On the other hand, the transfer of the Neuquén Environmental Complex must be a project included in the Municipal Budget and financed with the same resources used for the rest of the public investments. Therefore, it is not appropriate to charge an “ecotax” to taxpayers. Conceptually, the rate is a tax that must be paid by the consumer who wants to make private use of a good or service in the public domain. In this sense, the municipality regularly charges for the waste collection and treatment service.

Instead of increasing the tax pressure, the municipality of Neuquén could allocate resources from its Fund for Productive Works, or use financing from the Inter-American Development Bank.

This entire maneuver of easy collection for the convenience of outgoing and incoming governments is in contrast to the electoral promise that the CALF bill would have a lower cost for taxpayers.

Both the Municipality and CALF are solely responsible for the concession contract for the electrical service. Therefore, their financial debts could be assumed with the Fiscal Anticyclical Fund and investments in hydroelectric shares, respectively.

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