MEXICALI BRIEFS Customers get high electric bills
Senators of the National Action Party (PAN) Caucus are denouncing what they consider a broken promise to hold down electrical costs while citizens are housebound during the pandemic.
They said that despite President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s promise household would be shielded from high rates during the crisis, rates have been increased.
“Throughout the country, complaints are multiplying,” said the senators of the conservative party, among them Gina Cruz, from Mexicali. “To the corruption and ineptitude scandals of the director of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), Manuel Bartlett, we now have to add his lack of empathy with families.”
Commission customers have reported on social media receipt of electrical bills this month that are five to seven times higher that those a year ago.
The leader of the Mexican Civic Front, Sergio Tamai, has threatened to launch water balloons at the commission’s offices to denounce the so-called “crazy receipts.”
Senators noted that due to home confinement, electricity consumption has increased, which has caused electricity bills to jump significantly about the norm.
“While in other countries such as El Salvador, Panama or Bolivia their governments suspend, subsidized or extended the payment of electricity, here in Mexico there is not only no support, but we have to pay more,” the lawmakers said. “This is a hard blow to the battered family economy.”
Because confinement is expected to continue for the weeks, the impact will only grow, they said.
Over 555,000 jobs have been lost in the country last month. That translates to 771 families left would without a source of income every hour.
Official calculations project that up to 10.8 million Mexicans could fall into a situation of extreme poverty due to this crisis.
In the Baja California Assembly, PAN lawmaker Eva María Vásquez presented a resolution demanding that federal government agencies re-invoice May’s electrical bill. The measure was voted down, led by the majority Morena opposition.