Coronavirus

Covid-19 could push electricity bills up by 20 percent

Brazilians could have to pay 20 percent more on power bills due to the Covid-19 crisis, according to the Association of Big Industrial Energy Consumers (Abrace) and over 50 other organizations. The document points to government policies, added to the current state of the economy, as the main reasons for that.

For these organizations, the government’s decision to help small consumers and assist electricity distributors transfers the burden directly to the consumer, which could result in “adverse results for the economy in the long-run.” The document proposed the development of solutions that embrace both producers and consumers without compromising the production of the “essential good.” 

“After the crisis, we will need power to help in the recovery of the industrial sector, to generate jobs, to collect taxes,” read the letter. “Brazil needs to take opportunities from the abundance of natural resources to generate cheap energy to help the economy get over this crisis.”

Augusta Saraiva

Augusta is a Brazilian journalism student at Northwestern University

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