2023-10-05 01:06:12
The Government of Paraguay had announced the withdrawal of 50% of the energy that corresponds to the Yacyretá dam. It was retaliation against Argetina for the collection of tolls on the Paraguay-Paraná waterway.
However, This measure means a higher cost for the neighboring country, which could not be faced. Added to this is the serious financial situation of the dam itself, which today is unable to meet its debts.
The Paraguayan director of Yacyretá, Luis Benítez, reported that this Tuesday he held a meeting with President Santiago Peña, to address the entity’s financial problems. According to what is specified, it is due to the lack of payment by Argentina for the transfer of energy.
Historically, they were paid about US$18 million a year. The figure would have been significantly reduced in recent times, and for now Argentina only disbursed US$12,499,000 for the operation of Yacyretá and US$ 6 million as payment for energy transfer. However, US$36 million is owed corresponding to 2022.
“We follow the path of dialogue. We depend exclusively on the disbursement of what Yacyretá generates. Today we are in a very difficult financial situation. We have end-of-year commitments that used to be made in the affected area of Itapúa, Misiones and today we are having difficulty fulfilling that commitment”Benítez remarked.
The Paraguayan authorities say that the operation of the institution is around US$11 million a year, at a rate of US$1,400,000 monthly. In addition, there is added pressure from suppliers who are now not receiving their disbursements, and from the workers themselves, who are owed 7 months.
On the other hand, the Paraguayan director of Yacyretá revealed that Argentina is once again withdrawing 90% of the energy produced by the binational and that historically Paraguay always withdrew only 10%.
The head of the National Electricity Administration (ANDE), Félix Sosa, explained before the Paraguayan Congress that the withdrawal of 100% of the energy from Yacyretá would entail an additional cost of US$1.6 million for the state companyimpossible to attend at this time.
Yacyretá: the Argentine denial
“After intense meetings, monthly payments of 30 million dollars were agreed upon and this commitment was not fulfilled either. In the last hours of last Thursday, the Argentine government only transferred a little more than 12 million dollars“, says Paraguay, and they claim the missing 18 million.
Yesterday, the Yacyretá Binational Entity (EBY) Argentina, which manages the interests of our country in the binational, came out to categorically deny the statements of the Paraguayans.
“The Yacyretá Binational Entity (Argentina) categorically denies such expressions, stating that monthly installments of 30 million were never agreed upon.“said the writing.
That’s why “We reject claims of a new breach“, they point out. The Argentine administration admitted that there was a payment of $12,499,000 in concepts linked to the EBY Argentina energy session, but that these are not installments of 30 million as Paraguay says.
Although sources from the Ministry of Energy had stated last week that it had reached an agreement in principle to pay a debt of 36 million dollars for energy transferred in 2022 in three similar installments of 12 million each.
They also highlighted, then, that in the visit that Sergio Massa made to Asunción on August 24, the Minister of Economy He had warned Peña that Argentina “does not have dollars” to face important immediate commitments.
Argentina then also demanded that Paraguay, within the framework of a relationship that seemed to return to the dialogue prior to the disagreements that began with the collection of the toll for the Hidrovía, that the two countries sit down to negotiate the debt that the EBY has with the Argentine state for the construction of the dam in the 80s and 90s.
This is a liability in favor of the Argentine Treasury that appeared in the entity’s balance sheets with a value of 28,445 million dollars as of December 31.
“In the last meeting of the Executive Committee of the Entity, the Argentine executive director requested the formation of a technical group for the economic and financial organization of the EBY that would allow determining the real debts of each party,” says the statement from the entity he directs. the Formosan engineer Fernando de Vido, in reference to the aforementioned debt.
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