BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

Cheaper to buy electricity from Panama

Although local electric companies say they should be given preferential treatment, the Honduran government says it's saving $200,000 a month importing electricity from Panama. According to a La Tribuna report, electricity from private Honduran generators like LUFUSA, ELCOHSA and ENSE sells for between $0.07 and $0.14 per kilowatt, while energy from Panama goes for $0.058 ($0.035 per kilowatt, plus import costs). Local generators say they need government subsidies to compete with electric companies throughout Central America, but the government says times are tough and everyone has to make sacrifices. "If you can pay less for the purchase of goods and services, why pay more?" says Julio Gonzalez, Vice Minister of Trade. "You can't protect a group of businessmen by maintaining exclusivity in the purchase of energy within the framework of a policy of free trade." Gonzalez says local companies will have to "reduce their profit margin" if they want to compete.

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New law will prohibit rents in dollars

Ramón Izaguirre, Vice Minister of Government, says his office is ready to submit a bill to the National Congress that would reform the Tenant's Law (Ley de Inquilinato). If the legislation is approved, landlords will no longer be able to charge rent in dollars, a practice that is growing increasingly widespread in Honduras. "The economy is becoming dollarized and it is necessary that the economic cabinet take measures to stop this process," said Izaguirre in a La Tribuna report. "The idea is that we have to remember the national currency is the Lempira." The new law would also transfer the bulk of housing and property authority to the municipal governments, allowing the central government to focus on matters like standards, regulations and subsidies. In addition, it proposes that the Tenant Administration Department and the Health Ministry work together to ensure that underprivileged Hondurans have access to adequate housing.

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