Electricity Bill 1st on Agenda

The Chinchilla Administrtion has placed the Electrical Contingency bill directly at the top of the agenda for lawmakers to take up during the "extraordinary session" of the Legislative Assembly.

This special session Aug. 1-31 is a constitutional provision to allow the central government to control in what order bills will come up for debate and vote. This especially welcome for the President because, for the first time in decades, a coalition of opposition parties control the top legislative positions.

Along with the tax reform bill, the electrical legislation allowing private firms to generate and sell electricity is is deemed vital. The reason is that delays in the construction of the Reventazon and Diquis dams have raised doubts whether the power company, ICE, can satisfy the country's projected power needs by 2014.

Current law gives ICE a monopoly in electricity sales. But the growing use of alternative generation such as wind power along with expanding power demands has placed a priority on the bill. Nearly all the nation's power are from dams, wind, thermal

Naturally, tax reform also has a top spot on the government's agenda, although it is improbable it will be ready for a vote in only a month. In the administration of President Abel Pacheco (2002-06) lawmakers spent the better part of four years cobbling together such a bill only to have the Supreme Court's Constitutional Chamber (Sala IV) kill it shortly after passage.

Of the 10 top items in the central governments special session wish list, no fewer than four bills have to do with fiscal matters, the business publication El Financiero points out.