The Salta and Jujuy provincial courts were able to reassure their residents yesterday that they will no longer have to pay the exorbitant gas increases introduced earlier this year. High five.
The provinces are now part of a growing number of jurisdictions that are shielded from the federally sanctioned increases thanks to injunctions filed by the provincial courts (yes, apparently any court can trump the State if it can prove that a measure or policy causes harm to one or more people within its jurisdiction). Salta and Jujuy thus join the provinces of Córdoba, Mendoza, San Luis and Santa Cruz as well as the city of Bariloche in Río Negro Province, coastal districts in Buenos Aires Province and the districts of La Matanza and Avellaneda in Greater Buenos Aires in standing up to the man.
Utility bills skyrocketed at the beginning of this year when the Macri administration removed many of the consumer-level subsidies on electricity and gas. Not only did consumer energy prices increase by huge percentages, but they did so at a time when inflation is cutting into purchasing power and the economy is in a recession. In the Patagonian city of Bariloche, gas bills went up by as much as 2,500 percent, leading Mayor Gustavo Genusso to actually tell the city’s residents to not pay their upcoming gas bills back in May.
Faced with nationwide outcry, the Macri administration was forced to admit it’d made “a mistake” raising costs by as much as it had and put 400 percent cap on gas increases for Argentine homes. A 500 percent limit was also introduced for small and medium-sized commercial businesses (PYMEs), shops and hotels.
Read more: Government Puts Caps On Residents And Small Businesses’ Gas Bills
Argentina’s Energy Ministry declared a nationwide “energy emergency” shortly after President Mauricio Macri assumed office back in December. In fact, faced with gas shortages, the country was forced to begin importing gas from Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay all at the same time for the first time since 1989 last month.
Read more: Argentina Has To Import Gas From Five Neighboring Countries For First Time In 27 Years