The Listin Diario publishes a front page story to point out that all Dominicans are paying a significant share of the expensive power subsidies due to corruption and inefficiencies of the power companies. The government has budgeted for this year US$611 million to pay the electricity distributors their subsidy for providing electricity to the poorer neighborhoods, government itself for the service, and others that do not pay for the service, is equal to about RD$20.77 billion pesos. Statistically this means that each and every Dominican has to pay RD$2,426.10 to support the national electric grid. That is in addition to paying bills received from the power companies. If the figure were to be calculated for that part of the population designated as “economically active” (working population), each and every one of these people would be contributing RD$4,420.00 to the electricity distributors. With approximately 400,000 families receiving subsidized electricity, this works out as RD$51,900 for every family, but this is paid by the taxpayers. According to CDEEE executive Radhames Segura, part of the financial problem experienced by the electricity sector stems from the fact that part of those receiving subsidized electricity under the Program to Reduce Blackouts (PRA) have the ability to pay for the energy that they are using.