In this sense, coverage in the case of water is 94%, 24% in transportation, 27% in natural gas service and 24% in electricity. Within these last two, users cover 51% and 65% of the costs, respectively.
Meanwhile, the cost of the total basket of services increased 295% compared to December 2023 from the Updates on transportation rates (January and February), electricity (February), water and natural gas (April). It should be noted that the consumption of natural gas and electric energy is adjusted for seasonality of consumption.
By service, the report indicated that The most important increase was for natural gas with an increase of 893% compared to December 2023 and is explained both by the increase in rates in April and by a more intensive use in the month of May compared to December. In turn, spending on transportation increased 410%, on water 209% and on electricity 124%.
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On the other hand, the Government decided to postpone the removal of subsidies to avoid a new acceleration of inflation and the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputoanalyzes maintaining without increases in electricity and gas rates. For the moment, the main economic subsidies to the Water, Energy and Transport sectors had a accumulated annual growth of 133.4% compared to the same period of the previous year. However, the real variation shows a reduction of 40.8% annually.
In detail, in the first quarter, Energy subsidies, which represent 76% of total subsidies, They increased 138% in nominal annual terms, while they decreased 40.7% in real terms. In the case of Transportation, the decrease was 39% and in Water, 99.7%.
Meanwhile, in the accumulated period up to April, subsidies represented 11.4% of primary expenses, 0.9 percentage points less than in the same period of 2023 and slightly above the average annual weight between 2018 and 2023 (11.3 %).
To currency of April 2024 Real subsidies accumulate $11 billion in the last twelve months. This implies a real drop of 20% compared to the same previous period (accumulated between May 2022 and April 2023) and 40% compared to the peak observed in June 2022.
It should be noted that in the first quarter of 2024 the subsidies were given in conjunction with primary surpluswhile in the same period of 2023 it represented 85% of the deficit.
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Through Resolution 4/2024, the Ministry of Transportation of the Nation updated the cost structure recognized for AMBA operators. The payment of subsidies received by bus companies depends on this regulation and its amount is determined from the difference between the total costs of the system and the projected fare revenues.
The regulations cover the months of May and June 2024 and incorporates a provision for the joint agreement in progress between the Argentine Tram Union (UTA) and the transport business chambers. It represents an increase of 39% compared to April, on the mass of subsidies granted.
In this way, the subsidies paid by the Nation will exceed $80,000 million per month, that is, the equivalent of all the subsidies granted to transportation in the interior of the country during the year 2023, the IIEP stated.
However, there continues to be a pronounced gap between the costs recognized by the government and the costs reported by the business chambers, which are higher. According to data published by the Argentine Association of Automotive Transport Companies (AAETA), as of April, the difference is $95.6 billion monthly which corresponds 60% to the Nation, 35% to the Province of Buenos Aires and the remaining 5% to the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
On the other hand, as a result of the freezing of bus fares, the percentage of costs covered by the payment of fares will be reduced from 30% in March to 22% in June.
“While South American transportation rates are located in an area close to their average value for the period 2000-2005 in real terms, for the AMBA a drop of 67% is observed. This implies that it is a exceptional case in the provision of capital services in the region”the report highlighted.
“It is important to note that the cities in the sample also have transportation subsidies. In San Pablo the subsidy represents 53% of the service costs, in Santiago de Chile 65%, in Bogotá they are 55% while in Montevideo they are around 40% of the cost of the ticket,” he added. .
