The tariff hikes promoted by Javier Milei’s government are no coincidence: they represent a massive income transfer from workers and popular sectors to a handful of business groups that manage public services. This is shown by a study by Gustavo García Zanotti and Martín Schorr, titled «Privatized Companies under Milei’s Government: Tariff Hikes, Extraordinary Profits, and Investment Reluctance.»
The study reveals that since late 2023, official policy aimed to reduce subsidies and adjust tariffs to improve «the income, profitability, and operational sustainability of regulated private capital.» The authors argue that a scheme has been consolidated «where prioritizing fiscal surplus and changing the business model of licensee firms operated to the detriment of households’ purchasing power.» In other words, Milei’s fiscal balance is financed by making workers, retirees, and ordinary people pay increasingly inflated bills.
Between 2023 and 2025, while the general price level rose 334%, the «electricity, gas, and water» category soared 760%, becoming one of the most favored sectors of the economy, surpassed only by finance. The tariff hikes hit households hard: according to researchers, the basic public services basket in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area came to represent over 14% of the average registered salary. For informal workers and the popular economy, that percentage can double. The result is less money for food, health, education, or leisure.
The study shows that public services are dominated by a small group of capitalists who have gained power under different governments. In the 1990s, Menem handed over strategic sectors to large private groups. After the 2001 crisis, Kirchnerist governments promoted the entry of local capitalists with the pretense that they would negotiate better with the state. In reality, a «new core of economic power» was consolidated that lobbied for favorable conditions. With Macri came another wave of tariff hikes and profitability recovery. The Frente de Todos partially moderated with subsidies but left the privatized structure intact. And now Milei takes a new leap in favor of these companies.
Among the main groups are Marcelo Mindlin (Pampa Energía), Eduardo Eurnekian (Compañía General de Combustibles), Techint (Rocca family), Vila-Manzano (Edenor), the Brito family (Genneia), the Bemberg and Reca families, and Grupo Clarín, which strengthened with the purchase of Telefónica Argentina. Also notable is the Neuss group, linked to the Caputo family, which, thanks to the Bases Law, expanded its presence in hydroelectric plants and electricity distribution.
The study analyzes the balance sheets of 18 companies in the sector and finds that between 2023 and 2025, their sales grew 28% in real terms, while the gross production value of the entire economy barely advanced 1%. But the most striking data: «the aggregate mass of profits grew more than 55% between 2023 and 2025.» The largest profits were concentrated in Transener, Edenor, Edesur, the Empresa Distribuidora de Electricidad de Mendoza, and gas transportation and distribution companies such as TGS, TGN, Camuzzi, Metrogas, and Naturgy.
The researchers argue that «the recovery of profitability observed in 2024 and 2025 can be interpreted as part of an income redistribution process favoring this segment of local economic power.» In other words, tariff hikes transfer resources from millions of users to a handful of private monopolies. The argument that the private sector would invest more and better falls apart: the study shows that «the increase in profitability was not accompanied by an equivalent increase in productive investments.» In several sectors, investments stagnated or declined. Much of the profits ended up in financial assets: TGS accumulated assets worth 105% of its sales, Pampa Energía had $1.173 billion in financial assets, Edenor $582 million, and Telecom $553 million.
The result: power outages, lack of gas pressure, and increasingly unequal access to essential services. More than three decades of privatizations show that maintaining essential services under the logic of capitalist profit means socializing costs and privatizing benefits. Menem privatized them, Kirchnerism and Peronism maintained the concessions, Macri multiplied their profits, and Milei deepens the income transfer to these groups. The authors conclude that it is necessary to end private concessions and put public services under the management of their workers, along with democratically elected user committees, to ensure that electricity, gas, and drinking water are a social right and not a business for a few.
Para mí estos zurdos resentidos no entienden que los tarifazos de Milei son para que las privatizadas dejen de perder guita. Ya era hora de que los inversores ganen como corresponde, mientras los ñoquis chorros y los planeros se quejan. ¡Argentina no da más de vaga, que laburen y paguen tarifas reales!
Para mí esto es una joda, Milei le da de comer a los empresarios mientras el pueblo se caga de hambre. Los tarifazos son un choreo a mano armada, una transferencia de guita de los laburantes a los ricos. Viva la lucha de clases, carajo!