NewsWhore
12-09-2011, 10:50 AM
The executive vice-president of the State Electricity Companies (CDEEE), Celso Marranzini, warned the International Monetary Fund yesterday that it is not a good time to increase the electricity rates, because the population is already being punished with increases in fuel and food prices. The official said that it was "shameful" that a million electricity consumers do not have electric meters because the IMF will not authorize an increase to the electricity distributors' debt ceiling, pointing out that with US$75 million, all the distributors clients would be provided with meters, which would translate into a reduction of losses of around seven to eight percent.
Marranzini said that he will have to find a solution and negotiate it with the IMF, but this is part of what the economic team has to do, while the CDEEE's role is to keep improving the electricity sector. "The IMF has to accept that there is no longer an electricity hole and that one of the problems that the sector has had over the last two years is due the enormous limitation on investments," because if they loan this money, it will be returned in a month. He said that this money could not be taken from the Education, Health or Public Works budgets or any other sector as the IMF is reported to have proposed, and so he called on the agency to be "a little more flexible" and allow the country to invest in areas where the deficit can be reduced. He argued that "clients who do not have meters are charged on the basis of estimates of consumption, converting them into clients who do not save energy and there we lose a huge saving, because we are not processing the real consumption."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)
Marranzini said that he will have to find a solution and negotiate it with the IMF, but this is part of what the economic team has to do, while the CDEEE's role is to keep improving the electricity sector. "The IMF has to accept that there is no longer an electricity hole and that one of the problems that the sector has had over the last two years is due the enormous limitation on investments," because if they loan this money, it will be returned in a month. He said that this money could not be taken from the Education, Health or Public Works budgets or any other sector as the IMF is reported to have proposed, and so he called on the agency to be "a little more flexible" and allow the country to invest in areas where the deficit can be reduced. He argued that "clients who do not have meters are charged on the basis of estimates of consumption, converting them into clients who do not save energy and there we lose a huge saving, because we are not processing the real consumption."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)