President Leonel Fernandez stated last night that one of the main causes for the power outages
is that influential business sectors don’t pay for the electricity they use. The President said, that in other words, they are “stealing” the electricity. Fernandez declared that in the past, the government thought it was the poor who did not pay for electricity and it has turned out otherwise. “It is the big businesses, some rich businessmen are stealing electricity”, stated Fernandez, without mentioning names. He said he had instructed representatives of the electric distribution companies to be rigorous when demanding that businesses pay for the energy they consume. He stated that this year the government would allocate US$400 million to subsidize users who do not pay for electricity. He insisted that the national power problem must be resolved as soon as possible as it is using up resources that could be invested in social programs and infrastructure.