SANTO DOMINGO. - The president of the young business leaders grouped in ANJE Monday said they’re concerned with the electrical sector’s instability after the jump in the accumulated debts by the Government-operated Distributing Companies.

Ricardo Bonetti said the sector current debt increases at a rate of approximately 62 million dollars monthly and there’s 246 million dollars accumulated so far this year, while the total debt is of around 657 million dollars to date.

The energy crisis took a turn for the worse when the generators placed liens on the electricity distributing companies’ bank accounts.

Bonetti demanded that authorities meet their commitments pledged in the National Unity Summit, where the priority was "resolving the blackouts, the cash flow of the sector’s companies so they can provide a constant energy supply, bolstering and continuing the plan aimed at making the distributing companies more efficient in collecting the bill for the energy served to users."

He said the continuous increase of the debt owed to the generators and the insufficient funds also cause efficient power plants to be shut down for lack of fuel, causing blackouts and the entrance of inefficient plants with higher production costs.

Bonetti insisted that the authorities must adhere to the commitments assumed in the Summit, as well as to take the measures needed to increase bill collections. “I’m surprised that despite the need to improve collection, the authorities still don’t penalize the electricity service theft.”