Light is not a luxury. It is a service that allows us to have a favorable quality of life, especially in areas with high temperatures such as the Mexican southeast, or very cold areas such as the center and north of the country. The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) was created in 1937 to generate and distribute energy economically and safely to Mexicans. Today, 85 years after its start-up, the company has lost its way and, for the first time, has generated losses to the federal government.
Nobody is unaware that CFE has been gaining a grudge against Mexicans because they have missed the main objective of bringing electricity to homes efficiently and affordably. According to the last report of the Superior Audit of the Federation, in 2020, the state productive company obtained lower yields than last year, and at the same time, in the 2018-2020 period, the agricultural, domestic, industrial, services and commercial increased their average fare price by 8.9%, 4.1%, 5.2%, 3.4% and 5.7%, respectively.
The story of Mrs. Minerva is a clear example, her house was flooded for 2 months during 2020 in the Gaviotas neighborhood in Villahermosa and the power supply was cut off, when the bill for that two-month period arrived, it was a “crazy bill” of almost $8 thousand why if you did not use the service?
And with this example, I enter fully into the case of Tabasco, where civil resistance arose for almost 30 years in protest at high rates and which was championed by the current president of our country. Thanks to the signing of several agreements during 2019 and 2020, the “Goodbye to Your Debt” program was launched and with this, the historical debt that already reached almost $15 billion for the consumption of electricity was forgiven, and the most important, to achieve an old demand of the people of Tabasco, to have the 1F rate, the lowest. Today this achievement is clouded by a recently revealed audit report. In it, the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) mentions that it is illegal to apply the 1F electricity rate in Tabasco since it argues that its application goes against the regulations of the CFE, and, therefore, contravenes agreement 123 /2017 “Agreement that authorizes the final electricity rates for basic supply to domestic users” published in the DOF on November 30, 2017. Does this mean that we were deceived? This irregularity is added to the growing overdue portfolio of the CFE, which according to the ASF amounted to $64.5 billion in 2020, 18.4% higher than what the agency led by Manuel Bartlett expected. Of this amount, 63.7% (41,090 million pesos was concentrated in just three states: Mexico $19 billion, Tabasco $14,710 million and CDMX $7,305 million).
Who will come out to explain to us what is really happening at the CFE? Where are the public resources invested and the millionaire subsidies authorized? Why do we keep paying high fees? The CFE belongs to the Mexicans, without us and our taxes it would not be one of the largest in the world, that is why it is important that they give us an explanation in a transparent manner as soon as possible of what is happening.
@PerezSoraya
Economist
between numbers
Former President of the Federation of Colleges of Economists of the Mexican Republic AC