Overview
- The Ente Regulador de Agua y Saneamiento (ERAS) held a public hearing on Monday to review AySA’s plan to replace old zonal coefficients with a five-level territorial map and to phase out a 15% zonal discount.
- AySA’s impact estimates show about 1,998,747 residential households—roughly 60%—would face an average increase of 22.6%, while about 683,927 would see reductions and 672,194 would be unchanged, producing a population-wide average rise near 11.4%.
- The company projects roughly ARS 140,000 million in extra annual billing (about a 7.3% revenue lift) and proposes to allocate all additional income to expand the tarifa social and regularize delinquent accounts.
- Transition rules in the proposal would phase the 15% discount to 10% then 5% before removal, cap reclassification-driven rises at 5% per month for most users, and allow adjustment timetables that typically end within 3–12 months but can reach 19 months in extreme cases.
- The tariff debate is taking place while the government has adjudicated the sale of 90% of AySA to a private consortium for US$340.2 million and the transaction is scheduled to close around November 13, with the final approval and implementation timing resting with ERAS.