The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced that the price of gasoline will increase due to the “deficit of stabilization of fuel prices” that, he asserted, left by the government of Iván Duque.
«The fuel price stabilization deficit due to non-payment by the previous government is 10 billion (pesos) per quarter (about 2,300 million dollars). That is almost 40 billion annually (about 9,200 million dollars). Almost half of the national budget deficit. It is produced by not raising the price of gasoline,” explained the president in Twitter This Sunday, September 11.
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The Fuel Price Stabilization Fund (FEPC), which reports to the Ministry of Finance, is responsible for stabilizing the cost of hydrocarbons by paying producers and importers the difference between international prices and those on the domestic market, in order to to mitigate the impact that fluctuations in the price of gasoline in international markets may have on Colombian consumers, reported the news agency EFE.
«To gasoline consumers we say that we will return to the path of price growth, and that the object will be nothing more than to reduce the irresponsibly accumulated deficit. We will not touch ACPM derivatives,” added Gustavo Petro, without specifying from when the increase will come into force.
He said that Congress can advance the debate on the fuel price structure, and its indexation with international oil prices, “which includes the purchase of oil that Ecopetrol makes within the country at international prices.”
The fuel price stabilization deficit due to non-payment by the previous government is 10 billion per quarter. That is almost 40 billion annually. Almost half of the national budget deficit.
It occurs when the price of gasoline does not rise. https://t.co/bN4NTznFIy
– Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) September 11, 2022
