With the increase in the Total Basic Basket (CBT) in March and waiting for the officialization of the new criteria for the distribution of subsidies for electricity and gas rates, the income limits to receive the benefit were updated again and thousands of users of Level 1 who had lost them, could now request them again.
Last Friday, INDEC reported that the CBT rose 11.9% compared to February, and that a typical family of four needed income $773,385.10 so as not to be considered poor. Once this figure was known, the income limits to receive subsidies established in the Registry of Access to Energy Subsidies (RASE), launched with Decree 332/22, were automatically updated. of the previous government.
He RASE established three segments of residential users with differentiated subsidy levels:
Level 1 – Higher Income: pay full cost of fares and do not receive any subsidyLevel 2 – Lower Income: receive subsidies, with maximum consumption.Level 3 – Middle Income: receive partial subsidies, with consumption maximums.
For now, the national government decided to completely withdraw the subsidies to industrial and commercial users. In the case of residential properties, it only ratified the total reduction for Level 1but has not yet regulated the specific criteria for the review of subsidies for N2 and N3which are maintained according to previous regulations.
The DNU 70 of Javier Milei, which Supreme Court must analyze in depth due to the multiplicity of protections against him, empowered the Secretary of Energy of Eduardo Rodríguez Chirrillo to redetermine the structure of current subsidies in order to ensure end users “access to basic and essential consumption of electric energy and natural gas.”
The truth is that the public hearing for the redetermination of subsidies was carried out on February 29 without challenges and that beyond the publication of the new tariff squares, for now the RASE. And what’s more, With the increase in the Basic Basket in March, more users fell from Level 1 to Level 3, and from Level 3 to Level 2, which means that more users are eligible to request help from the State to cover the rates. In fact, even today The request for subsidies can be processed through an Affidavit, although Economy reported that these procedures are completely paralyzed.
The big change that is coming in this matter is the entry into force of a Basic Energy Basket, which is delayed in time. In principle, the CBE was going to be implemented starting last March, then it was postponed to May and now it was definitively on standby. Official sources admit the difficulty of determining the income of a family in Argentina: “More than 40% of electricity and gas users have undeclared income.”
