Ministry of Housing would seek to set water rates without technical criteria, warns Sunass

The National Superintendency of Sanitation Services (Sunass) has issued a statement in which it warns that a regulatory proposal from the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation (MVCS) violates its autonomy, since it would allow rate setting without technical criteria. Which would result in the lack of protection of users against service interruptions.

The project to modify DL 1280, Framework Law for the Management and Provision of Sanitation Services, promoted by MVCS, would eliminate, in practice, the regulatory and rate determination function carried out by Sunass.

“This eventual political interference would encourage a return to inefficient models that set water rates without technical analysis, harming the sustainability of drinking water, drainage and sewage treatment services,” the regulator highlighted.

The MVCS would determine a “policy of economic deliveries to personnel linked to the provision of water and sanitation services at the national level”, charged to the increase in rates, supports the proposal.

The proposed modifications would imply the readjustment of rates without prior compliance with goals established by the regulator, which would encourage the inefficiency of water companies, that is, without improving the provision of quality of services. In this way, users would be left unprotected against water cuts, since it reduces the obligations of the companies established by Sunass.

“The legislative proposal exceeds the powers originally delegated by the Congress of the Republic to the Executive Branch, since it does not contemplate modifications to the tariff and quality of service functions,” notes Sunass.

Finally, Sunass remembers that the OECD recommends consolidating the autonomy of regulatory bodies. While the eventual approval of the legislative proposal, in the terms described, “would imply a setback in the process towards the incorporation of Peru as a member of the OECD.”