The directory of This Friday, the World Bank approved an additional financing of $300 million for Argentina. The main aim is to optimize the scope of gas subsidies. The aim of the disbursement is to “strengthen the institutional capacity” of the government to realign the scope of state aid protect the most vulnerable households from the impact of tariffs, At the same time, the financial and environmental sustainability of the energy sector is promoted.
This loan serves as additional financing for the current project “Support for the transition to a sustainable electricity sector.” As the Washington-based organization emphasizes, this is the initiative supported the improvement of the Energy Subsidy Access Registry (RASE), Segmentation tool that allowed 1.2 million households to be correctly reclassified so that they pay the full or reduced rate according to their actual income and wealth levels.
“We support the government’s efforts to further improve the targeting of gas subsidies to reach the most vulnerable populations. who devote a larger percentage of their income to meeting their energy needs,” said Marianne Fay, World Bank Director for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
With this new project, the radar will not only be limited to network gas users, but will pay special attention to them Bottled gas. The aim of the initiative is to support low-income households and regions without a connection to the distribution network, where the population only relies on pots for cooking.
Operationally, the initiative aims to simplify, harmonize and modernize the various gas supply support systems. To improve both efficiency and accessibility, The integration of bottled gas beneficiaries into a formal register is planned, to facilitate access to funding and other complementary programs.
“By better adapting the subsidy system to household energy consumption patterns, we aim to improve the equity of the system and energy use, reduce consumption, promote energy efficiency measures and reduce unnecessary spending,” the official statement said. This new loan will have a variable margin, The repayment takes place over a longer period of 32 years and includes a grace period of seven years.
The financial support comes just a few days before the end of the year and the start of the new tariff subsidy system. From January onwards, there will no longer be any segmentation based on income level (classified today as high, medium and low), but there will be users who receive subsidies and those who do not receive subsidies.
In addition, discounts on electricity, gas and bottle tariffs are not granted consistently throughout the year. but only in the months with the highest energy consumption. As the government explains, those who have registered with the RASE do not need to register again as the data is automatically migrated and updated every month with an affidavit.
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