During the COVID-19 crisis, the city government issued a decree to apply discounts on charges such as water, waste, gas, and electricity. This measure, permitted by the state of emergency, is one of the safety nets thrown by Mayor Claudia López to ease financial stress, especially for those in greater need.
The new reductions have been arranged with utility providers and will be applied to households in the lower 4 levels of income (these go from 1 to 6, depending on social, economic and geographic factors).
In addition, some 30,000 households will receive a relief of 250,000 pesos per month for up to 3 months to help families in the poorest neighborhoods pay rent.
The Mayor has taken several other measures to support hardships. The most successful so far has been Bogotá Solidaria en Casa System, with which she has transferred cash or delivered goods to over 470.000 families.
Other actions include more flexible deadlines on taxes, no disconnection of services (households and small businesses under financial stress will not have their service disconnected for failure to pay bills), late fees and interest waived (struggling households and small businesses will not be charged late fees if they can't pay bills on time, and there will be no interest charged on debt), and a minimum of planned outages for critical works.
Water and sewer
The Mayor's Office will subtract up to 7,528 pesos per month, in order to cover the increase in consumption due to the quarantine, which in Bogota started march 20th. This would apply to households of levels 1,2,3 and 4. It is estimated that this benefit covers an additional consumption of 1.41 cubic meters of water per month.
Natural gas
In April and May, families of income levels 1 and 2 will receive a 20% discount on the gas bill; 10% contributed by Vanti, and 10% by the Mayor's Office.
Waste management
The Mayor's Office will give a 10% relief in the billing cycle of April and May on this essential service. Once the discounts for subsidies have been applied, households of levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 will benefit from the discount.
Electricity
In April and May, households of levels 1 and 2 will have a total discount of 20%, 10% provided by Codensa Company and 10% by the Mayor's Office. For households in levels 3 and 4 there will be a 10% discount provided by the Mayor's Office.
A relief on lease payments
Additionally, the decree creates a transitory lease contribution, jointly financed by the Mayor's Office and the Ministry of Housing, to help families pay rent (whether it is daily, monthly, weekly, or monthly rent). Residents are expected to be able to stay in their homes as much as possible during the quarantine, unless they are working under one of the permitted exceptions.
The transitional lease contribution will be 250,000 pesos per month, to be delivered as an unconditional cash transfer, through the Bogotá Solidaria en Casa System. It is expected to benefit some 30,000 households for up to 3 months.
