While various educational, union and popular associations in the country continue to exert pressure through closures and demonstrations at the national level demanding the freezing of fuel prices, economists and figures from other sectors have warned about the danger of this provision.
The lawyer, financier and political activist, Luis Cigarruista, explained this morning the difference between this freeze vs. the elimination of the final tax on fuel prices. He clarified that when we talk about price control on gasoline, this is a subsidy paid by all Panamanians.
“When in Panama we set a fixed price, someone has to pay that difference from the real value, either $3.25 or $3.50; that is, if it is at $4.00 and it is tied at $3.25, where do those $0.75 come from? That comes from everyone taxpayers; that is, from the accumulation of taxes that have been collected by the State and that is paid by everyone,” he added.
Cigarruista stated that “there are different ways to do it, the first is with debts, which is what has been done in recent months. Another point is to seek greater fiscal efficiency, trying to generate fiscal savings from expenses that are unnecessary or useless. to try to create a substitute income. The last thing, a currency issue, but that cannot be done”.
Regarding the benefits of establishing the non-collection of this tax, he pointed out that it would generate immediate savings when people go to “tank”, although the truth is that these incomes no longer enter the State, but a substitute income must be sought for that tax through savings.
