On Wednesday, June 10 of this year, Senator Ricardo Monreal, member and leader of the Morena Parliamentary Group, presented before the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union an initiative to amend Articles 27 and 28 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States. This initiative proposes the creation of the National Institute of Markets and Competition for Welfare “INMECOB”, as an autonomous constitutional body with legal personality, technical, operational and managerial autonomy. The initiative states the reasons for reducing public spending.
With the creation of INMECOB, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (“IFT”), the Federal Economic Competition Commission (“COFECE”) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (“CRE”) would be extinguished, with the purpose of integrating such regulatory bodies and thus establishing the only one in matters of Economic Competition and in the Telecommunications, Broadcasting and Energy sectors, without including in INMECOB the powers of the CRE in matters of hydrocarbons.
However, Senator Monreal mentioned last Sunday on social networks that he will postpone the legislative process of such initiative in order to initiate a process of evaluation and discussion. It is important to point out that, if the initiative is approved in its current terms, there would be a budget and personnel cut, affecting the technical and specialized functions performed by the IFT, COFECE and the CRE, natural monopolies that are indispensable to the economy. In addition, it would not be in compliance with the Chapter 18 requirement of the T-MEC, which is to have an independent telecommunications regulatory body, so, among other reasons, it could be expected that the initiative would have a direct impact on investment in our country.
