Residents of Buenos Aires took to the streets of the Argentine capital on Thursday (July 14) banging pots and pans to protest increases to consumer utility prices, days after the conservative government announced price hikes will be capped at 400 percent.
The centre-right government of Argentine President Mauricio Macri announced a new cap on increases to consumer gas prices on Monday (July 11) and said it would appeal a court ruling that recently halted the hikes.
“I’m marching against the rise in prices that we had. We don’t have enough money for this and we can’t pay the bills that came,” said 76-year-old retiree, Osvaldo Ceballos (seh-BAH-yos).
Macri had cut generous energy subsidies and raised utility rates in January shortly after taking office, saying fees frozen during previous governments had swollen the fiscal deficit and left the grid on the brink of collapse.
But working mother Marina Rizzola said salaries do not stretch enough to cover the dramatic rise in prices.
“I received a gas bill for 1,900 pesos (103 USD) and I get paid 10,000 pesos (543.67 USD). I have a son and I must pay the rent. My salary is gone. The truth is our entire country is going through a very difficult time and the media are being protective. The only resort we have is to go out in the street and do this (protest) so that someone will listen to us,” she said.
A previous cap, announced in June, had been based on the amount of gas consumed and not the final bill for consumers.
But an Argentine court ruled last week that the gas price rises across the country were invalid, reversing Macri’s attempt to trim the fiscal deficit through higher utility tariffs.
The ruling government has said it will appeal the ruling and had asked members of the Supreme Court to help clarify the problem.
The announcement comes as Macri has been urging Argentines to strive to conserve energy as the country weans itself off years of cheap natural gas.
“Because of bad policies for over a decade, we are left without sufficient energy not just to live, but for development. That’s why I am asking you, all citizens, time and time again, that based on this responsibility, we truly collaborate by reducing personal energy consumption because what the country most needs at this moment is to consume less energy,” Macri said.
Argentina’s biggest distributors of natural gas in Argentina are Edesur and Edelap.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016
