ASIS INÉS DEL VALLE
Congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Water and Energy: accessibility, quality, rates, tax burden and effects on the competitiveness of SMES and the environment
Lugar:
Washington
Reunión:
Conferencia; 16 th Conference Global Forum on Science, Policy and Environment; 2016
Institución organizadora:
Global Forum on Science, Policy and Environmen
Resumen:
This project seeks to analyze the current situation of the water and energy resources in the Córdoba province?Argentina-; in particular, its availability, alternative sources of resources, accessibility, quality, rates, taxburden and effects on the competitiveness of SMES, from the perspective of environmental economics. On thebasis of the previous study, will be inferred outlook toward the future, primarily on the most immediateproblems that must be resolved in this jurisdictional level and that are common to all the provinces of theArgentine territory.The importance of analyzing the problems of accessibility, quality and costs of public services due to the samevariables are determinants of the life quality of residential users and the competitiveness of small and mediumsizedenterprises (SMES). In the particular case of companies, together with other determinants, such as thetax burden and the cost of labor, are critical factors that decide on many occasions the company investment ornot .On the other hand, an analysis of the public services rates should not ignore the tax component that the samebuilt-in. The relevance of this analysis has been exacerbated in recent years in Argentina due to the significantincrease in the tax burden applied on the entire economy on the part of the three levels of government- nation,province and municipalities. In general terms, the Value Added Tax at the national level is the main tribute onthe public services; at the provincial level there are stresses imposed on the gross revenue, for which, in theregulatory framework of the privatization of public services, it was established that any increase in aliquotcould be transported in a legal manner to the consumer; while at the municipal level, there are many cities thatlevy high rates of energy consumption. At the municipal level are also, other taxes lower than respond tovarious facts and which are charged as a percentage of the turnover. In addition, there are other types ofobligations created from various national laws, such as the one that establishes the National Fund of electricalenergy that implies a surcharge to the rates of buyers in the wholesale market, or the law known as "SantaCruz", which establishes a surcharge on the final sales price. They all had an impact on the cost of service forall users.The efficiency of the borrowers of these services, is an essential aspect that public policies should address,whether the provision is in charge of them -public enterprises of water or energy-, as also if the provision is inthe hands of private capital or cooperatives. The evidence indicated that the degree of efficiency can varysignificantly when we analyze the different types of borrowers, as well as by their location or scale of provisionof services. The efficiency is distinguished from the effectiveness in both the latter only considers whether theyachieve the desired objectives, regardless of the level of the costs. Consequently, a policy can be effective butnot efficient, but not the other way around.Finally, public spending on water and sanitation, and energy are major items of public spending at all levels ofgovernment of Argentina, with high impact on society. The recent problems in the supply of water in towns ofthe interior and the countless cuts service provision of power for the entire province, show that the problem isfar from resolved.The analysis of the efficiency raised in this project will be carried out based on the comparison of two models,a model of Data Envelopment Analysis to assess the performance of the various jurisdictions with respect tothe budget assigned to water and sanitation and energy, on the one hand, and of the different types ofborrowers, on the other; the DEA model will be confronted with a stochastic frontier model.Finally, in terms of environmental economics, this project raises the question of how the forecast generalhypothesis that "to continue with the current models of management of these two resources, sustainability isseriously compromised". The verification of this hypothesis will work together, not only in the citizenawareness with regard to the problem, but also try to be useful and serve as a guide to decision-makers inpublic policy in this area.