Two years of bad budgets and tariffs for the small and medium-sized industries they manage local public services. The first figure: between 2021 and 2022 they have sustained average increases of 41,3%. Years in which there was also a strong variability between the services offered and the economic activity of the companies. As with other sectors, the increases are largely attributable to the supply of electricity and gas. Electricity grew by 60,3%, gas by 57,3%. The data are those of the analysis on main local public services, created by Unioncamere and Borsa Merci Telematica Italiana (Bmti). All budgets recorded higher costs, but among local market segments, the highest costs were faced by non-food companies. The specific weight of the energy sources was, however, different. The increases in electricity involved the sale of electricity, reaching an average of 127%. Something on the final costs was recovered thanks to the intervention of the Arera with the reduction of the system charges. The increases in natural gas, on the other hand, can be traced back to lower supplies from Russia. Yet Utilitalia at the beginning of 2022 had provided record data of dividends and turnover.
Public services affect the quality of life
What effects will it have on citizens in the coming months? Will the quality of services to families decrease? Inflation is eroding profits but Unioncamere and Bmti have faith in the interventions that Arera is implementing, "aimed at ensuring the necessary convergence in service quality levels and related costs". In practice, he gets to grips with a new tariff method, with the calculation of costs and the evaluation of the quality of the services offered. After electricity and gas, the analysis examined water service tariffs and waste. The picture in this case is less bleak than energy, since for water the increases were just over 3% and for waste there was no difference. Taking a step back, between 2017 and 2022, spending on local public services utilities of some of the most popular commercial activities had an average increase of 54,2%.
Public services and competition
Taking a closer look, the increases recorded by local SMEs must also be seen in relation to the annual law for the market and competition. The law delegates the Government to reorganize, within six months, all matters relating to public services. There will be more implementing decrees for individual services to continue to ensure that the needs of local communities are met. The subject of tariffs will certainly be selective, but the government has undertaken to identify among all services those of general economic interest in the network and other local public services of economic importance. In this regard, the law has re-proposed the enhancement of the role of the users - Says the Anci – with their involvement in the phase of defining the quality and quantity of the service, the objectives and the costs of the local public service. For now, though, it's all uphill.
