While in November 2022 the cost of electricity had a decrease of 1.14 percent compared to October of the same year, due to the relief granted by the Government, that of the fuel for vehicles it rose, in the same period, 2.8 percent, almost three times those reliefs.
(Also read: Why did the ACPM price rise despite the Government’s promise not to do so?)
In fact, the rebound in these was greater, 4.2 percent between September and November of last year, according to data from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), entity that will release today, Thursday, the inflation data for 2022, in which both the costs of electricity and fuel will contribute more and more to this annual variation.
«As regards the regulated, we estimate new increases in the price of fuels, electricity, aqueduct and gas as a result of the higher prices on the stock market and the high level of the TRM (Representative Market Rate)», warn the analysts of Grupo Bancolombia, who estimate that the variation in the cost of living of Colombians in 2022 reached a new maximum in this century of 12.93 percent.
(You may also be interested in: Transporters and the Government will meet to seek agreements for the increase in diesel)
And although the measures adopted through the tariff agreement last October mean that the energy tariffs for users do not exceed the CPI, as warned by José Camilo Manzur, president of the Colombian Association of Electric Power Distributors – (Asocodis) On the issue of fuel, the Government plans to continue making «gradual and progressive» increases, perhaps until 2024.
As recalled, with the adjustment of about 400 pesos in the price of gasoline at the beginning of 2023, an increase of 1,000 pesos was completed in the last four months.
These adjustments in the cost of fuels, especially diesel, when the Government had promised that it would not be touched, at least until the middle of this new year, put the country’s cargo carriers on alert, who They will meet today Thursday with Guillermo Reyes, Minister of Transportation to try to find a solution to this situation.
Meeting with transporters
Arnulfo Cuervo Aguilera, Vice President of the Federation of Cargo Transport Entrepreneurs (Fedetranscarga), He said that the purpose of said meeting is to propose that the increase that occurred in the cost of this fuel be reassessed, which is «tied up with the tax reform and the damage done to the increase in the minimum wage because prices are going to shoot».
They will also ask the Executive that the price of said fuel remain without adjustments, at least, during 2023. «With the tax reform, the Government has already obtained 20 billion pesos, what need does it have to continue pressing the price increase to inflation and increase inequality?”, said the union spokesman.
But not only the issue of fuel makes cargo carriers angry, but also the fact that they have not been included in the discount benefit of close to 50 percent of the cost of the Compulsory Traffic Accident Insurance (Soat)obtained through Decree 2497 of the Ministry of Finance.
For this reason, in the meeting that they will hold with the Minister of Transportation, they will request the application of the Soat benefit, since they were excluded with the promise that the ACPM would not increase in price until June of this year.
Although the Fedetranscarga initiative emerged, the idea is that more unions can join this conversation that would take place around 11 in the morning today, because “the problem is not Fedetranscarga or the cargo transport sector but the country. Raising freight and fuel affects us all ”, warned from the union.
For Cuervo, there is no justification for this increase, which will cause truck operating costs to rise even more, because up to 45 percent of them are related to fuel payments.
Both Fedetranscarga and Colfecar stated that the way out of this problem will be dialogue, since at no time have they contemplated the use of de facto roads (strikes).
