According to a private study, the impact on gas bills will be stronger in the middle and lower sectors. In electricity, although it is still relatively cheap compared to what is paid in neighboring countries, the rate represents 3.45% of the salary, the highest in 30 years.
While the electricity service rate is the highest in the last 30 years measured in relation to the formal salary, the cost of natural gas is about to give bad news to medium and low level users: electricity bills. April will arrive with an increase of around 500% compared to the level they had last year.
In terms of natural gas, energy specialists calculate that between the summer and the beginning of autumn, the National Government put rates at a level similar to that of 2019 for high-income households, after reducing the pace of deliveries. increases during the Alberto Fernández government that followed the steeper increases of the Mauricio Macri era.
The consulting firm Economía y Energía carried out a study to specify the level of increases. It was based on the bills that residential users will pay starting in April according to the tables published by the National Gas Regulatory Entity (Enargas) and the subsidy scheme, which covers the difference between the cost of production and what is actually pay .
The work determined that in May in the N2 segment, the jump will be 559%: from $3,000 to $19,000 compared to last year. These users are the ones with the lowest income, but they will have the largest jump. Meanwhile, N3 (average income) will receive a 424% increase between May 2023 and April: from $4,891 to $25,629.
Businesses and industries (GSP categories 1, 2 and 3) do not have a subsidy on the price of natural gas generation and will receive the largest increases. The SGP1, small businesses, will see a jump of 1,140% when comparing May 2023 ($1,154) with April 2024 ($19,272). For SGP 2, it will increase 799% (from $6,690 to $60,172). For SGP 3, small industries, the increase is 318% ($105,000 to $438,319).
According to Economy and Energy, the bills for the N1 residential areas are 17% below the 2019 average. The N2 and N3, 46% and 20%, respectively, are also down.
Electricity
Meanwhile, a UADE report stated that the electricity rate is equivalent to 3.45% of a seasonally adjusted average salary in the formal sector of the economy. This is the highest cost in the last thirty years, measured in relative terms.
The work took the Institute of Economics (INECO) as a source, based on data reported by the National Electricity Regulatory Entity (ENRE) and the National Secretariat of Labor.
Globally, and within South America, Argentina’s electricity rate is relatively cheap. The cost is US$ 0.11 per kWh (until last year, in March, the same rate was 0.04 cents) and US$ 27.5 if the basic basket of 250 kWh is considered. The average value of this same basket worldwide is US$42.5 (USD 0.17 per kWh), making the Argentine basket US$15 cheaper.
The study indicated that although a tariff correction for public services is necessary, the new values impact household spending, while the purchasing power of Argentines is falling, putting even more pressure on this phenomenon.
In March 2024, the electricity rate represented 21% of the total basic basket (CBT) measured by INDEC. Just two months earlier, in January, the same rate was equivalent to 10% of the CBT. In this framework, with the inflation rate falling, the government postponed already planned rate increases, to distribute them over time.
