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LATIN AMERICA |
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Ecuador
Losing $200 Million a Year to Electricity
Theft
QUITO – Ecuador is losing around $200
million a year from electricity theft,
Electricity Minister Esteban Albornoz said
Tuesday.
Following last Saturday’s request by
President Rafael Correa on one of his weekly
programs that the minister work on limiting
the effects of the problem, Albornoz said
electricity theft is “one of the big
problems of the electricity sector” in this
country.
He recalled that when the current government
took power, “the losses were around 22
percent,” while “at this time we’re down to
about 18 percent,” Albornoz told Ecuavisa
television.
The annual losses for the country from this
stolen electricity “are around $200 million,
which means that distributors bill $800
million when what they ought to bill is $1
billion,” he added.
With the decrease of four percentage points
achieved by the government, the country is
saving $40 million a year, but “the goal is
to keep working hard on campaigns to check
meters and formalize customers in order to
get it down to 12 percent,” Albornoz said.
He also said the government is not only
working with distributing companies “on the
kind of management they have to employ to
control this loss of electricity,” but is
also seeking a change in the law “to impose
stronger sanctions because we’re robbing the
state and all Ecuadorians.” EFE |
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