The CFE made millions by reconnecting electricity services amid the pandemic 

Amid the COVID-19 crisis , Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) canceled the electricity service to 543,128 Mexicans who couldn’t afford to pay their bill; however, the CFE later obtained millions when it reconnected the service.

According to official information, the CFE made MXN 47,000,038 by reconnecting the services to users between April and May, when Mexico registered higher contagion rates, people went into isolation, companies fired their employees and implemented salary cuts.

The pandemic contributed to increasing the CFE profits regarding reconnection services by 10.1% during the first five months of 2020 when it made MXN 130,000,877; 12 more million than in the same period in 2019.

The most recent documents, obtained through a transparency platform, date from June 16. They show that between April and May, the CFE reconnected 687,919 electricity services after users failed to pay their bills.

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Each user had to pay MXN 86.42 to reconnect their service, as well as paying their debt .

In its website, the CFE indicates its clients that to resume its services, they must pay their debt and r econnection services .

Reconnection fees

are between MXN 58 and MXN 91, plus 16% VAT. Once users pay their bill and reconnection fee, CFE workers reconnect the services between one and three days.

The state that registered the most reconnection requests was Jalisco with 69,351 reconnections. It is followed by the State of Mexico , Michoacán , Mexico City , Puebla , Veracruz , and Guerrero .

Six out of 10 reconnections carried out by the CFE between April and May concentrated in 12 states.

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On May 28, EL UNIVERSAL revealed that half a million Mexicans didn’t have electricity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when the country entered stage 3 of its contingency plan, because they couldn’t afford to pay their bills between April 1 and May 12.

Out of the 500,000 users, around 110,677 users didn’t have electricity in Mexico City and the State of Mexico, once considered the center of the pandemic in the country.

For the state-owned company , reconnection services represent MXN 314 million every year.

Therefore, during the first five months of 2020, the CFE reconnected 1,852,326 users and earned MXN 130,887 for this service.

The CFE provides electricity to 44 million users.

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