The presidential candidate of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) Luis Abinader said he opposes selling 50% of the shares of the Punta Catalina thermoelectric plant, the coal-fired mega plant built by the Medina administration. The power central is described as the largest single public investment made with taxpayer money. The Medina government created the company Sociedad Comercial Central Termoeléctrica Punta Catalina to prepare for the deal with private investors.
“This financial effort has represented an enormous budgetary sacrifice of resources,” said Abinader. He recalls that the power plant was touted by the Medina administration as the solution that would bring competitive electricity tariffs, would allow for the government to reduce electricity subsidies and would strengthen the negotiating capacity of the government with private generators.
“These promised benefits would not be achievable with the transfer of shares to private investors,” he said.
“We are convinced that by keeping the thermoelectric plant in the hands of the state we would have the opportunity to introduce new energy offers without having to incur new loans,” he said.
“The plant has already been built and if it remains in state hands, the kilowatt-hour could effectively be sold for less than 8 cents, not for 9 or 10 fixed cents, unchanged for three decades, as would be the case if we make the sale as planned, he said.
“The objections that we will now raise do not mean in any way we oppose public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects in the electricity sector or in other areas, but rather the rejection of this specific operation, because it would harm the economic, social and political interests of the Dominican people.
“Regarding Punta Catalina, the Dominican people doubt the credibility of the government’s energy policy. A hasty and non-transparent sale would confirm the people’s doubts. This dark mantle of doubt would also fall on the private investors who accept these terms and sabotage any future possibility of reliable public-private partnerships. That is why transparency must be the prerequisite for any solution,” he concluded.
He said that amid an electoral process and just a few months away from a change of administration, prudence advises against making improvised decisions that could compromise or condition the new government’s energy and financial policy.
Abinader spoke on the subject when he presented his National Campaign Command and new party venue.
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El Caribe
29 January 2020