Spanish Electricity Price Hike Turnaround
June 24th, 2010
The Government has decided to suspend the electricity price rise that was scheduled for July, a move that has been welcomed by the Consumers and Users Organisation (OCU), but that, in their view, also demonstrates that the cost of electricity “is not decided by any objective criteria, such as the actual cost of electricity.”
In a statement, the consumer organisation said it would have been “very bad timing” for a further rise in the cost of electricity, which, together with the VAT increase from July the 1st, could have “severely affected the economy of many Spanish families.”
The statement highlighted that the agreement on the price freeze between the two main political parties, the PSOE and the PP, “gives substance to the OCU’s analysis, which has always considered that the price of electricity was a political price. It once again shows that the price of electricity is not based on criteria governing the actual base cost of electricity.”
The OCU considered that it was now a “top priority,” for an agreement between the government and concerned sectors to “once and for all, reform the pricing system for electricity.” The organisation, together with other members of the Council of Consumers and Users, will meet this afternoon with the Secretary of State for Energy, Pedro Marin, to “ask once again for full clarification on the tariff.” Furthermore they will air consumer concerns regarding “successive rises in price that have not improved the quality of service, as well as an option to return to bi-monthly billing.”
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