2 out of 10 Mexicans do not pay electricity bills

Electricity theft, which costs Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) nearly MXN$60 billion a year , is only one of the problems facing the state-owned company.

As of January 30, 2019 , domestic, industrial, and commercial users from the agricultural sector, as well as mid to large size companies who are not accustomed to paying fees owed the company a total of MXN$43.48 billion .

There are currently 7.8 million users with supply contracts who have missed their payments for some time now, according to information provided by the state company through the National Transparency Platform .

Out of said users, 609,000 are retailers, 18,765 are agricultural users, 16,628 are service providers, 9,469 are mid-size industries , and there are currently six large companies that owe the CFE a total of MXN$13.17 billion , though the report does not show their names.

However, around 7.14 million domestic users represent the most significant weight in terms of arrearage. By the end of January, 2019 , they amassed roughly MXN$29.86 billion worth of debt .

Presently, the state-owned electric company registered a total of 40.6 million clients , which means that, at the beginning of 2019, nearly two out of 10 customers at the national scale did not pay their electricity bills.

Information provided by the CFE indicated that most defaulting debtors are concentrated in seven federal states : The State of Mexico was at the top of the list with MXN$13.59 billion worth of debt; next was Tabasco, with a MXN$10.24 billion debt; Mexico City, with MXN$6.1 billion; Chiapas, with MXN$3.9 billion; Guanajuato, with MXN$1.99 billion; Guerrero, with MXN$1.22 billion, and Veracruz, with MXN$1.22 billion.

The problem with default debt is that it has shown a significant increase, according to statistics provided by the CFE in Mexico City.

On October 5, 2018 , EL UNIVERSAL reported that the company was faced with a major problem in the country’s capital, since four out of 10 customers did not pay their electric bills .

The report, which showed data collected in the month of August, revealed that more than 1.15 billion citizens with supply contracts consumed energy, though they did not pay for it.

At that moment, said figure seemed particularly high, since the number of customers the CFE registered in Mexico City rose to 2.77 million users , which meant that 41.4% of them did not pay their bills .

As of July last year, the company registered MXN$5.16 billion worth of property damage, whereas in January, the number rose to MXN$6.1 billion.

Electricity theft costs millions to the CFE

dm