“TRANSITIONAL LAW TO DEFER PAYMENT OF BILLS FOR WATER, ELECTRICAL ENERGY AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES. (PHONE, CABLE AND INTERNET)”

On March 20, 2020, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved Legislative Decree No. 601, which establishes some economic measures that will be implemented to combat the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in our country.

Decree No. 601 includes the following measures:

• Defer payment of drinking water service bills.
• Defer the payment of the electricity bill. (does not include the payment of municipal taxes)

In the case of natural persons, the benefit will only apply if their energy bill has a consumption of up to 200/Kwh.

• Defer payment of telecommunications bills.

The measures will be applied to service invoices for the months of March, April and May of this year, which will be paid over a period of up to 24 months, in level installments starting in June of this year.

The value of the invoice for the services that are deferred must not suffer surcharges for any reason of late payment, interest or other penalty.

These measures will be applied solely and exclusively to natural and legal persons that are directly affected by the effects of COVID-19, such as those companies that have reduced their income due to partial or total closures or those natural persons who have been in a period of quarantine in shelters in the country.

The Ministry of Economy, together with the Ministry of Finance, will be responsible for developing the pertinent administrative provisions for the application of Decree No. 601.

The Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of El Salvador or the Central Reserve Bank in its capacity as Financial Agent may grant a guarantee in favor of a Financial Institution or group of banks to constitute a bridge financing operation, with the purpose of not affect the providers of basic services of water, electricity and telecommunications.

This decree came into force on March 20 of this year.

For more information and legal assistance in this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us through the following channels fmartinez@romeropineda.com; Info@romeropineda.com; tel. 2505555 or for emergencies 77299977

It will be a pleasure for us to serve you.