The resources assigned in the Complementary Budget for the Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE), some RD$9.8 billion will not suffice, according to executive vice-president Ruben Jimenez Bichara. The money is to be used to pay the arrears the CDEEE has with the generators now at around US$600 million. The budget item, at the current exchange rate is US$233 million, so that is can be “used to make a partial payment of the generators’ invoices,” according to Jimenez, speaking at a meeting with the Senate Budget Commission that is studying the Complementary Budget submitted by the Executive Branch, which assigns 71% of the amount to the CDEEE. Jimenez said that during this year, the first eight or nine months saw a substantial payment of the electricity bills. “But as the budget ran out, after the payment in April in order to go through the hottest season, the payments that were being made were in arrears, but now we are going to improve things with this complementary budget.”
Nevertheless, the Dominican Association of the Electricity Industry (ADIE) reported that the government’s accumulated debt with the electricity generators has reached nearly US$900 million, due to the arrears in the collection of the last six invoices. The ADIE says that the exact amount owed by the government to the electric generation companies is US$886,553,140, which causes great concern because it affects the continuity of operations by the companies. The generators accumulate interest on the arrears.