05/02/2024. The Minister of Economy of the Nation asked “not to burden the middle class anymore,” while he insisted that the Government’s priority is “to lower inflation.”
The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputojustified the postponement of the increases in electricity and gas rates by maintaining that, for now, “we do not have to burden the middle class with more expenses.”
The official responded to a tweet from a journalist, who on Tuesday had written that by delaying the increases “the Government’s obsession with reducing inflation begins to collide with the basis of the economic program: eliminating the deficit from the State accounts.”
“It’s exactly the other way around. Because we are comfortable fiscally, we prioritize lowering inflation and not burdening the middle class with expenses anymore,” Caputo said in his X account.
The Government postponed the rate increases and divided the update of the fuel tax into sections in order to avoid its impact on inflation, which in April would be around 8%, according to consultants.
An automatic update of the rates was scheduled since Wednesday, but the tables with the new values were not officially published.
Thus, it postponed the application of monthly indexation mechanisms that had been defined by the Ministry of Energy, to avoid a delay in real terms of the income of distributors and transporters.
In the same sense, the update of the fuel tax (ICL) that represented an 8% adjustment in prices at the pump was suspended.
