President Javier Milei and the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, celebrated the fiscal surplus achieved during the first quarter of 2024. However, they avoided going into detail, because – to achieve this – they postponed the payment of debts with electricity companies, gas and public works.
The president received questions from the sector and had to call a meeting, which was headed by Caputo, to offer a bonus and thus address the debt in question. The representatives of the electricity generators and distributors refused. On the other hand, the gas producers said yes.
Along these lines, the head of state confirmed when the payments that the Administrative Company of the Wholesale Electricity Market SA (CAMMESA) has pending will be made. “Cammesa payments will be made starting in June,” he said in a note with Radio Rivadavia this Sunday.
Milei’s statement came hours after former president Cristina Kirchner questioned him. “You don’t have a fiscal surplus, brother. Look at everything you owe,” he launched at an event in Quilmes.
Milei celebrated the fiscal surplus, but I did not pay for electricity, gas or public works
The surplus announced by Javier Milei last Monday was obtained without paying for electricity, gas and public works. The problem comes from the drag of Alberto Fernández’s government, but if the Treasury were to pay for those commitments, which it owes, the fiscal surplus for the first quarter of 2024 (of $1.13 trillion, 0.2% of GDP), announced by the President, It would instantly become a fiscal deficit of 1.02 trillion, 0.18% of the product.
This was confirmed by iProfesional from official sources and from the private sector. “Milei is saying that the father of the family became rich in three months, but he stopped paying for electricity, gas and the credit card,” said a businessman linked to the energy generating companies sector.
Caputo offered to pay energy generating companies with a bonus, but they rejected it.
Last Monday, with great fanfare, Milei called for an announcement on the national network to communicate that in his first four months in government he achieved a surplus of $1.13 trillion in the first quarter of 2024 and in record time reduced GDP by 5 points. . She also said that last March she achieved a financial surplus, after interest payments, of 276 billion pesos.
However, sources from La Libertad Avanza assured iProfesional that Milei began to sweep the trash under the carpet, because he did not announce that the Treasury still has to pay 2.2 billion dollars to the generating companies that supply energy and the oil companies that produce the gas that arrives through the distributors.
From the energy sector they warn of an imminent crisis
But in addition, sources from the Argentine Chamber of Construction assured that the Treasury also owes 220 million dollars to the public works contracting companies to which Milei stopped paying since he took office and whose billings were already delayed in Alberto’s management. Fernández and the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa.
Thus, the total debt of the national Treasury for services that it used -but did not pay- exceeds 2,420 million dollars, something like 2.15 billion pesos.
“The fiscal surplus that Milei announced is fictitious and carries with it a great risk of there being an unprecedented energy crisis,” said an energy analyst.
If the surplus announced by Milei for the first quarter of 2024 was $1.13 trillion, 0.2% of GDP, the effective payment for electricity, gas and delayed public works would be 2.15 trillion which would configure a fiscal deficit of 1.02 trillion quarterly, which is equivalent to 0.18% of GDP.
Meanwhile, Edenor, Edesur and other distributors are demanding pending payments due to the rate freeze.
On the other hand, however, the State has to collect 370 billion pesos from the electricity distributors for late payment by users, which the distributors transfer to Cammesa, the state wholesale company.
If the treasury could recover that debt from the distributors the deficit would be reduced to $650 billion, 0.11% of GDP.
In the Government, the spokespersons for the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, and the Secretary of Energy, Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo, They did not respond to iProfesional’s questions on whether the debt of the wholesaler Cammesa with the electricity generators and the Treasury with the gas producers were included in Milei’s announcement and if there was a solution to fulfill that commitment.
