New electricity subsidies.(DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)(Brief article)

0 Comments | Caribbean Update, July, 2009

Starting in late June, the government was scheduled to provide 806,830 homes with electricity subsidies via the Solidarity Card, reports DR1 Daily News (June 9, 2009). The so-called Bono Luz will reach 67% of households registered as customers of electricity distributors EdeNorte, EdeEste and EdeSur, which have 1,201,314 customers.

The director of the Unified Beneficiaries System (SIUBEN), Miriam Rodriguez de Simo said that of the total beneficiaries of the Solidarity Card, a sort of welfare card, 626,301 are destitute or poor and 180,529 are lower middle class. Rodriguez said that with the new method of channeling this subsidy, traders and businesses that were taking advantage of the fixed rates in poor barrios would no longer benefit.