Summertime Electricity Fraud, An Evil with a Cure
The confrontation with electrical fraud will continue throughout the summer, a period in which this negative phenomenon for the economy is tending to grow, Nílver Guerrero Piñero, a commercial specialist with the Provincial Electric Company of Holguín, told this newspaper.
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Author: Germán Veloz Placencia | german@granma.cu
24 de julio de 2018 22:07:37
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
HOLGUÍN: Confronting electrical fraud will continue throughout the summer, a period in which this negative phenomenon for the economy is tending to grow, Nílver Guerrero Piñero, a commercial specialist at Empresa Eléctrica Provincial, told this newspaper.
In July and August, he explained, they will carry out several preventive actions, including inspections and certification of routes, during which they will visit hundreds of homes to verify technical standards and detect problems with meter reading or alterations of any kind.
At the end of the first half of the current year, 692 electrical frauds had been detected in the province. The absolute majority were in the residential sector and service establishments belonging to non-state workers.
The offenders were detected through operations that required the monthly participation of about a hundred inspectors, who in accordance with Decree-Law 260, imposed fines amounting to 346,000 pesos, already incorporated into the State Budget.
In accordance with the legal provisions, the offenders, in addition to paying the 500 or thousand pesos that establish the penalties in these cases, faced temporary suspensions of electricity service.
After explaining that 35% of the fraud detected during the period in question was perpetrated by self-employed workers, the official pointed out that Decree Law 260, when referring to this sector, makes it clear that recidivists may have their leave suspended for six months or indefinitely, a penalty that will be applied when necessary.
Inspections carried out in the first half of the year revealed that the most widespread of the frauds is the direct unrecorded connection to the meter, followed by the internal manipulation of these devices.
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