According to the available information in Article 10 of the D.F.L. MOP No 453/1989 of the Regulation of the Tariffs Law for Sanitation Services, the Superintendence of Sanitation Services ("SISS") and the company arrived at an agreement under the sixth process of the regulation of tariffs for public sanitary services, that is concessionary, for a five-year period, 2015 – 2020 (the "agreement").
In accordance with the agreement, the agreed tariff level as of December 31, 2013 (reference date of the establishment of fixed Base Tariffs by the SISS), amounts to a Total Long Term Net Cost (TLTNC) of $311,117,000,000.-, which does not represent the variation in comparison with the agreed tariffs for the five year period (2015-2020, above) for active services and standards. The agreement provides for additional investments for a TLTNC of $3,663,000,000.-, with the startup of new works related to security and safety in order to increase the continuity and quality of service in events of extreme turbidity and power outages, and for a TLTNC of $4,343,000,000.-, with the startup of works related to the improvement in the quality of treated wastewater. These additional objectives must be included in the Development Plan updated by the company and must carry the approval of the SISS.
For an increased understanding of the agreed tariff regimen, Article 4 of the Tariffs Law for Sanitation Services defines TLTNC as the constant annual amount required to cover the costs of efficient operation and those of investment in a replenishment project optimized by the concessionary, sized to meet demands, and that is consistent with a net present value of said project equal to zero, in a timeframe of no less than 35 years. By definition, this concept corresponds to the incomes (under a theoretical demand) of a sanitation company which have been deducted from the replacement value of a given investment project from the concessionary, which corresponds to the networks and facilities supported by third parties. The values above correspond to the revenue from existing services (TLTNC) obtained through application of the current annual demand for the years 2015-2020, to the newly agreed and indexed tariff rates as of December 31, 2013. The agreement expressly stated that the constancy of the indexing polynomials will correspond to those currently in place.
The referred agreement establishes a discount in the tariffs in respect of services not regulated by the Alto Maipo project. For the tariff period 2015-2020, and once it enters into operation, an annual discount in the TLTNC of $3,680,000,000.-, will be applied, corresponding to 80.17% of the annuity investment (reservoir and water rights) determined by the company in its study, which will represent, approximately, 1.2% of the tariffed annual revenue.
It must be noted that it is not possible to exactly determine the magnitude of the impact of the results that will come with the new tariffs on the financial statements of the company, given that this tariff regimen is one of the many elements that contribute in determining the results for each period, as well as counting factors such as potable water, costs, expenses, the applicable index polynomials, among others.
Finally, the agreed tariff formulas will be fixed by decree of the Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism, which must be published in the Official Journal before the date of its entry into effect, this being March 2015.