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The
AyA - Water and Sewer Utility -
Denied Rate Increase
The Autoridad Reguladora de los
Servicios Públicos (Aresep) -
the regulator of public prices
and services turned the reqeust
by the Acueductos y
Alcantarillados (AyA) - water
and sewere utility - a rate
increase.
The AyA has asked the regulator
for an increase of up to 30% in
their rates for providing water
and sewer services to its
residential and commercial
customers, citing that it had
not increased rates since April
2004.
The increase would generate the
utility some ¢12 billion colones
(us$23.3 million) in additional
revenue for the utility in 2007,
over half of which would be used
to make up for inflation.
The AyA says that part of the
latest increase would also go
towards a project fund, which
would cover an aqueduct
rehabilitation project being
carried out in San José with
support from the Central
American Bank for Economic
Integration (Cabei).
The regulator cited the AyA's
failure to respect changes
demanded in the 2004 increase,
saying the utility failed to
comply with none of the three
requests it made when giving the
AyA a rate hike in 2004.
The Aresep is asking the utility
company to better its quality of
service, avoid waste of water
and make a series of investments
in infrastructure.
In their decision, the Aresep
said that since the utility
failed on all three points, it
cannot approve the current hike.
Fernando Herrero, Regulador
General, (head of the Aresep),
assures that the AyA has to make
major improvements and present a
plan to fix the earlier problems
before it can again ask for a
rate hike.
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