The debt that the national State maintains with wholesale electricity generating companies It is beginning to give the Government major headaches. Last week Luis Caputo proposed to the sector to cancel it through bonds, an idea not entirely well received by businessmen. Now, his own Javier Milei said that he will pay them in June with the surplus accumulated by then. But the accounts do not close, because that same surplus was generated, in part, by postponing the payment of these debts..
Last Thursday, the Minister of Economy met with wholesale electricity generating and gas producing companies to present a proposal on the state debt to them. This is an amount of 1.2 billion dollars and corresponds to the months of December 2023 and January 2024. At the same time, the Government promised to begin regularizing the debt generated as of February. The total debt amounts to 2 billion dollars.
With a view to preventing this large figure from generating an imbalance in the sought-after fiscal surplus of the first months, which was barely repeated in March, taking expenses on a cash basis and not accrued ones, the idea that Caputo brought to his business interlocutors was offer them a bond with a total face value of 600 million dollars to pay off the debt corresponding to December and January.
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However, Companies did not receive this proposal favorably.. Especially because it implies a promise to pay only half of the total debt for those months, that is, a 50% reduction.
In this sense, official sources familiar with the negotiations recognized The uncovering that The businessmen “were not convinced” with the offer presentedbut they stressed that “the Government’s will (to pay with bonds) is there”, and that wholesale electricity generators must understand the “effort” that everyone has to make in this time of crisis.
Milei’s proposal: pay CAMMESA’s debt in June with a surplus
Therefore, now Milei came out with an alternative proposal. “CAMMESA payments are going to be made in the middle of the year, in the month of June,” stated in statements to Radio Rivadaviaand added that the payment will be able to be met because “during the first five months we are generating a lot surplus financial”.
Official sources explained to this portal that this new plan stated by Milei does not invalidate the payment with bonuses proposed by Caputo and that, in any case, these eventual titles, if accepted by the wholesale companies, could be pre-cancelled in June.
But the problem is that The idea of paying electricity generators with a surplus is conceptually absurdbecause To achieve that same surplus, the Government had to postpone the payment of those same debts.
“With what was accumulated from the surplus, you cannot pay the electricity companies, basically, because, if you pay, you do not have a surplus,” he sums it up. Martin Epsteineconomist STRAINand adds that “either they break the first quarter of surplus and close next month with a deficit and catch up with the debt they have, or they continue to kick debt forward.”
In fact, Milei himself admitted that “when those numbers come (from debt payment to wholesale companies) operationally we are going to be in deficitbut with what was accumulated before, the accounts remain balanced.”
Besides, For Epstein, it is unlikely that the Government will be able to accumulate sufficient funds in these two months next to pay with a true surplus: “Caputo is playing hard to accumulate stronger reserves with the liquidation of the thick harvest, but for now that is not happening,” he warns, adding that “next month they will do cost even more to close the deficit, because there is no indication that revenue can grow.
