A complaint filed first with ARCA, then in federal court
The holding of Juan and Patricio Neuss has expanded further across Argentina's energy map than any other since Javier Milei took the presidency, and it now faces a fresh judicial complaint over alleged large-scale tax evasion at EJESA. The Jujuy distributor and EDET in Tucumán share an owner: since 2025 both have been controlled by the Neusses' Edison Energía, a group that has also accumulated accusations in provinces including Mendoza and Neuquén.[S1][S2]
Engineer Hugo Farfán initially lodged the complaint with ARCA, describing a three-stage mechanism he says was used to evade taxes and collect money covertly from 1 May 2024 onward. After more than 120 days passed, he took the matter to the federal justice system in Jujuy because tax crimes are alleged. The claim against EJESA centres on aggravated VAT evasion on the Sistema Aislado Provincial and also seeks compensation for 120,000 people in the province. EJESA has additionally been accumulating fines from the Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos y Otras Concesiones for various breaches.[S1]
Farfán told Ámbito that two ARCA directorates issued contradictory rulings on his complaint, and that the agency's inaction led him to file in federal court. He also said the federal court in Jujuy has left the case entirely stalled, and he argued that although the complaint covers May 2024 to May 2026, the 6.6 billion peso figure could multiply exponentially. In his account, the Neusses inherited an unlawful collection scheme but kept it because it benefited them. Neither EJESA nor the Jujuy energy secretariat had responded to requests for comment by the time the reports were published.[S1][S2]
How the alleged three-step billing scheme worked
According to the complaint, a coordinated and sustained accounting device was designed to dodge collection-authority controls and defraud the national treasury while also hitting residential, commercial and industrial consumers. The alleged offence is hidden behind a three-step billing mechanism. The first step concerns residential users and is described as concealment and omission of VAT: EJESA is accused of operating the concept under the Fondo Provincial de Energía Eléctrica de Jujuy while failing to register the real isolated-generation activity with tax bodies.[S1]
The second step, labelled liquidation of the tax for non-residential users, is described as more complex. For businesses and industry, EJESA is said to calculate VAT internally at 21% or 27% on the surcharge and fold it covertly into the unit tariff charged. In that way, the distributor is accused of taking the tax debit straight from the merchant's pocket without ever declaring it or passing it to the national state. Evasion under this heading is put at more than 2.8 billion pesos.[S1]
The third step involves taxes on fuel that was never consumed. The complaint says the surcharge billed to users was based on an assumed volume of diesel, yet the sums collected as the liquid fuels tax and the carbon dioxide tax corresponded to fuel never bought or used for electricity generation; that figure exceeds 220 million pesos. Added together, the three items surpass 6.6 billion pesos in barely a year, and the complaint suggests the total would be considerably higher if the analysis ran to the present. Farfán said EJESA has shown total disinterest and has not sought to mediate.[S1][S2]
Users push back as the dispute spreads to Tucumán
Alejandro Mur, head of the Jujuy council for taxpayers, users and consumers known as CODECUC, asked to join the case as a complainant. He said the organisation sought an injunction to stop EJESA from cutting service to vulnerable users, and that the civil and commercial chamber rejected it. Mur also said the criminal investigation could reach state officials and control bodies if it is proven that they deliberately failed to supervise or allowed the disputed resolutions to stand. He added that the FOPEJ charge has risen 6,900 percent over the past five years.[S1][S2]
Members of the organisation Mujeres Municipales submitted a petition to the Jujuy legislature backed by more than 11,000 signatures, demanding urgent action over the heavy impact of EJESA bills on thousands of families across the province. They also want the legislature to take up revocation of the concession contract between EJESA and the province. The complaints in Jujuy echo those in Tucumán, where the Neuss group controls EDET, which was due to call a tender this year for its majority shareholding; despite public criticism of an alleged improper arrangement between governor Osvaldo Jaldo and the Neusses, the call is now expected to be postponed to 2027.[S1]
