The Superintendence of Power announced it had authorized a 6.6% increase in power bills for April, to appear on May invoices. Resolution 24-2003 establishes a rate of RD$2.87 for the first 300 kWh consumed. The rate for consumption above that level is RD$4.05.
The government revises the power bill rates on a monthly basis. Indexes used to determine this month?s increase were the dollar-peso exchange rate (RD$24.78-US$1), the cost of petroleum (US$27.75) and the collections index of the power companies (0.715%). The last is the percentage of power served versus power collected. For years consumers who pay for power have had to pick up the tab for those who do not. With the privatization of the electric system, this practice had been thought to have come to an end. The private companies, however, have not been efficient at collecting and last year, the government even approved the creation of a special force to assist the companies in reducing fraud and increasing collections at an additional cost to Dominican taxpayers.
The Superintendence has been regularly authorizing power bill increases since the middle of last year. Last month, the rate rose 20%.