Ito Bisonó on fuels: “We have to be austere"

Ito Bisonó on fuels: “We have to be austere"

The gallon of premium gasoline is sold this week at RD$293.60. When the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Mipymes is asked if it will cost the historic high of RD$300, he prefers not to answer.

When asked, then, if there is a call from the Ministry for the consumer to prepare for the increases that are in sight, he shows a photo on his cell phone with the cover of the Puerto Rican newspaper El Vocero, which reads as the main news: “ You will pay more for gasoline.”

the minister Victor –Ito- Bisonó prefers not to be direct, but does not hide the panorama of uncertainty and pressure for the price of fuels that is envisioned by the warlike conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“What we have to do is plan, be austere and review the entire chain of processes where we can adjust some things, and the government is the first to do so,” he says Free Journal.

Last week, the price of Texas Intermediate Oil (WTI) -which is the benchmark for the Dominican Republic- closed on Thursday at US$107.67, halting several days of increases influenced by the war in Ukraine. But the next day it rose again, to $115.68.

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Bisonó wants Dominicans to understand why they pay the prices set by the government for fuels. These, if a bill that the Executive Power submitted last week is approved, would no longer be set every Friday to rule for a week, as is currently done, but biweekly, and the day to announce it might not be the same.

“We have been able to observe that in a week the prices in the international markets fluctuate and weigh on the final price. If we give it 15 days, the price can be more stable”, ensures.

“Those results every Friday -he adds-, it is not that they are invented or (are) to annoy or favor someone, they are the result of the price of oil and the burden that the structure itself has at this time”, he says.

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With the draft Law that Reorganizes the Hydrocarbons Sector in the Dominican Republic, an attempt is made to modify several articles of the current law on hydrocarbons (Law 112-00), and one is that the calculation that leads to setting the price of hydrocarbons be made transparent. fuels.

The project was submitted to the National Congress on February 28 and is one of the initiatives that the Executive Branch considers a priority. “What we want is to bring peace of mind to people, that people know that what they are paying for a good is fair, that there is no secret, that there is nothing wrong, that there is transparency and accountability and (they are) all processes are auditable”, he says.

The reform initiative also mandates the creation of the Fund for the Stabilization and Compensation of the Prices of fuels (Fecopeco) to reduce the impact on the national economy of possible revaluations that occur in the international market for oil and its finished products. “If we had had that fund, perhaps today the subsidies would not be necessary to take them out of the budget savings,” says Bisonó.

“Those results of every Friday, it is not that they are invented or (are) to annoy or favor someone; they are the result of the price of oil and the burden that the structure itself has”Victor -Ito- BisonóMinister of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs

In 2021 alone, the government reported that, to prevent fuels reflect real prices in the local market, allocated more than RD$15.4 billion for subsidies. So far in 2022, it has been more than RD$3,000 million.

Bisonó is confident that the bill will be approved in the National Congress and that is why the ministry he presides over anticipated last January to notify eight electricity generating companies in isolated systems or for their own consumption, that the gradual dismantling of the tax exemptions they receive in fuels.

Until last week, there had been no meeting with those notified, says Bisonó. “At the time of sacrifice, those of us who have the most and those who can do the most have to do it too,” he says.

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In tax exemptions for electricity generation, the State estimated that it will stop receiving RD$6,014.8 million this year, exclusively for the selective consumption tax on hydrocarbons.

The withdrawal of the exemption must be approved by law. “If we had been able to do it earlier, we would already be sitting down talking about it,” says Bisonó.

Amnesty for packers

Who was first?

The bill also includes an administrative amnesty for LPG bottling plants and other fuel stations that, in theory, violate the distance allowed by law from buildings such as churches and schools. “With this amnesty, an update will be given to open up what is not the responsibility of the structures,” explains Bisonó, in the sense that there are places where the business came first over other properties.

Economics editor and professor of journalism. She has specialized in investigative, multimedia and data journalism.

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