President Hipolito Mejia has cancelled the scheduled 20% increase in electricity billing. The increase was supposed to begin on 1 July and affect power consumers using more than RD$1500 a month. The increase was the main reason behind the day of national protest, called by a group of unions known as Coordinadora de Organizaciones Populares Sindicales y Choferiles. Upon the presidential announcement, the group met for four hours but decided to go ahead with the protest anyway. The 20% increase had the support of the administrator of the CDE, Cesar Sanchez, the Minister of Industry and Commerce Angel Lockward and the Superintendent of Electricity, Jose Ovalles. It was disputed by the Presidential Electricity Advisory Commission. This commission urged the government to set up a mechanism to sell fuel directly to the generators in order to help them reduce their fuel costs by 50%, which in turn would considerably lower the cost passed on to consumers and make the 20% increase unnecessary. Jaime Aristy of the Commission says the contract that allows generators to bill for diesel when using cheaper types of fuel is enabling them to recover their investment in one to three year’s time. Interviewed at Façonnable in Plaza Bolera where he was trying on a suit, President Mejia said: “I am not going to give my authorization, under any circumstances. Someone may have said so but I do not agree with that,” referring to the 20% increase. Mejia blamed the present electricity problems on the Fernandez administration’s privatization of the power industry. “It is a historic dead body that will fall upon Leonel Fernandez. What happens is that now he doesn’t remember anything, he is suffering from amnesia, he is a man with little shame,” said Mejia. One of the major problems affecting the electricity sector is the contracts signed with the distributors and generators that allowed them excessive privileges and advantages that have led to extraordinarily high profits at a time when Dominican consumers suffer from high power rates. If the 20% rate had gone through, Dominicans would pay the highest per kilowatt rate in the Americas, according to Aristy. President Mejia also said that he stands firm in his opinion that everyone in the DR should pay for the power they use.
