The Government of Paraguay announced on Wednesday that the state oil company will reduce the price of diesel and gasoline most used in the country, when the third day of protests and blockades of roads due to fuel increases is celebrated.
He also reported that he would submit to Congress, with a request for “emergency treatment”, a project to create a fuel price stabilization fund, which would finance a subsidy to be applied to imports.
The decisions were announced when the intermittent blockades maintained by hundreds of protesters in different parts of the country have slowed the traffic of vehicles through the main highways, especially those that connect Asunción with the border points with Brazil and Argentina.
Specifically, said the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Luis Alberto Castiglioni, the state-owned Petroleos Paraguayos (Petropar) will reduce 500 Guaraníes (0.072 cents) to the price per liter of type III diesel and 93-octane gasoline.
These fuels “are the ones most used by the working sectors, producers, people who are in services, in commerce,” the headline added at a press conference at the presidential residence (Mburuvichá Róga, the leader's house in Guaraní).
The measure began to take effect from zero hours this Thursday and will be in force for 30 days.
However, it will not cover private distributors, who are free to set fuel prices.
Minutes before the press conference, Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez announced on his Twitter account that he signed on this day the bill creating the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund.
“This measure will be presented to the National Congress immediately, with a request for emergency treatment,” said the governor, who returned on Wednesday from São Paulo (Brazil), where he moved on Monday “for family reasons of force majeure.”
On the Executive's proposal, Castiglioni assured that the fund seeks to give “predictability” to the current situation with fuels, which it considered “totally alien” to the reality of Paraguay and attributed to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
According to the official, the fund will be a “permanent tool with temporary application”, since it will operate when “the situation requires it”, that is, in the event of upward fluctuations in fuels.
Once the law creating the fund is passed, Castiglioni anticipated that a discount of 500 guaraníes per liter will be applied to type III diesel and 93-octane gasoline.
The reduction will be “general”, pointed out the minister, noting that this benefit will also cover fuels marketed by private companies.
The fund will have a capital of 100 million dollars from a loan from CAF - Development Bank of Latin America.
The mechanism will feed on the selective consumption tax, which taxes products not considered essential, such as alcoholic beverages or weapons, as well as those that pollute the environment, such as fuels.
(With information from EFE)
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