Only time will tell if the Federal Planning Ministry’s decision (via ENRE regulatory agency) to deny Edesur the right to pay out dividends represents merely an electioneering stunt or a dangerous shift in policy. Certainly it poses a dangerous precedent, given an increasingly interventionist government’s vastly expanded boardroom presence since the confiscation of AFJP private pension funds last November. Since at least five other utilities have been allowed to pay out dividends so far this year, this new turn of the screw is at the very least a case of double standards when not an indication of a more aggressive attitude on the part of a fiscally struggling government. If so, this newfound aggression runs smack into a more defiant mood from the business community, thus escalating pre-electoral tension — the united business front presented in Congress on Tuesday against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his country’s entry into Mercosur over last month’s nationalizations of Techint metal holdings there shows how openly critical the business world has become in just the last 10 days or so. Edesur itself is not inclined to take this dividend ban lying down.

And what about the merits of the case? The government argument is that investments must precede the payments of dividends, accusing Edesur of lagging behind its 2008 investment schedule (even though the utility reports investing 400 million pesos) — defending jobs equally comes ahead of paying shareholders (with 240 layoffs recently). Certainly Argentina’s energy grid could do with more investment (despite a warm autumn until recently) and the government is right to suspect businessmen of preferring to pocket rather than invest profits but unfortunately, the only way to counter this inclination is to make it more profitable to invest surplus. And this aim is certainly not served by stamping on a utility’s right to pay dividends for the first time since 2001 — no investments are made without return in the real world. The government’s attitude smacks of former economy minister Felisa Miceli’s famous line: “There’s no such thing as maximum prices in Argentina, only maximum profits.” Attempts to impose investment only ensure the opposite.

Last but not least, the denial of 65.5 million pesos of dividends specifically to Edesur’s overseas shareholders (the newly Italian Endesa and Petrobras) marks a new level of isolation from the world at precisely a moment when the government is congratulating itself over the success of former United States president Bill Clinton’s visit.