2023-06-24 03:25:00
Gabriel Trujillo*
Many SMEs today pay their electricity bills in installments, to continue working, others get into debt and there are those who think of closing, as expressed at the meeting on June 7 last to the president of EPRE.
My name is Gabriel Trujillo, I am an SME entrepreneur from our province and promoter of the bill that creates an Electrical Promotion Registry for Micro-SMEs, which was ignored on October 20, 2022, despite having been on the agenda, for treatment in the provincial legislature. In my humble opinion, an undemocratic act that I denounced in this same medium, with a letter to Governor Arabela Carreras. There she commented that she also considered it an attack on the productive sector, the development and growth of the region.
The response was not long in coming with a project, which on December 21, 2022, without making the public known, they wanted to impose in the first round with the agreement of the ministers and, due to public pressure, they decided not to deal with it. This came not only ignoring the needs of the productive sector, but also came to take 5% more on the bill from the pockets of all Rio Negros, to form a new fund (the third). This, theoretically, It would be used for infrastructure that, as we know, must be provided by the distributors in accordance with art. 37 of Law 2,902.
A few months later and following the enormous forgiveness of almost two thirds of the debts contracted by the distributors (CEB not included) and in another act of social insensitivity to continue subjugating our rights, EPRE calls a public hearing, which I would call quasi-private, so that both Edersa and the CEB once once more hit the pockets of all users, leading the productive sector in particular, in many cases, to the closure of small businesses.
Madam Governor: many SMEs today pay their electricity bills in installments, to continue working, others get into debt and there are those who think of closing, as was expressed at the meeting on June 7 to the president of EPRE.
As a side comment, it is curious that on such a special day for freedom of expression, such as the day of the journalist, the press was not allowed to enter.
In said meeting, which lasted more than two hours and where some of us took the floor, it was left at the end a document whose expressions are categorical when it comes to mentioning the violation of laws and resolutions, which would also expose emptying maneuvers and poor performance of officials.
It should be noted that it was signed by the entire productive SME sector of the province, through leaders of Federations, which bring together: Chambers, Associations, Cooperatives, Irrigation Consortiums, etc.
The same thing happened in the Virtual Hearing on June 5 convened by EPRE for the 36% rate adjustment requested by the CEB, in which I participated as a speaker.
In this, FEEBA (Federation of Business Entities of Bariloche) He rejected any attempt to increase it, stating that the sector is already burdened with taxes and costs. On the other hand, and in the presence of the Ombudsman’s Office, as well as the president of EPRE, its first speaker recorded the criminal complaints made once morest the Cooperative for false balances, emptying and diversion of capital to “controlled companies”. This information appears in the recording of the hearing that EPRE itself uploaded hours later to its website.
I wonder:
How can it be that in the face of the tenor of said complaint made in a hearing, the provincial authorities remain inert?
Wouldn’t this be a way to guarantee impunity within a key sector, moreover, for the economic and productive development of a region?
SMEs, cooperatives, producers, merchants, we are the ones who pay for the State pot. How far will they go with excess and indifference?
In a country with a poverty that reaches 42%, in a province with one of the most expensive electricity costs, how can we allow them to keep putting their hands in our pockets? Do they want to put an end to the job-generating sector to be absolutely controlled by the State? Is this the plan that the authorities have to lower inflation? To generate equal opportunities? To encourage growth and development? Where do they want to take us?
Isn’t it enough to persecute those of us who denounce and seek a better future in the province, trying to bring their small productive companies to ruin, using the state and control agencies for this?
Governor, with all due respect, there are many of us who would like to know your position on all these issues.
Finally, I would like to remind our representatives that they must listen to the will of the people, not act like monarchs. In no way do they own our lives, nor our companies. Much less of our future.
At 54 years old and with more than 30 years of entrepreneurship, I am tired of being hostage to the politics of our country, which has submerged us in slavery, to, as I said before, pay for the state pot.
*SME Entrepreneur from Bariloche
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