The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, announced this Saturday that gasoline will cost 5,000 bolivars or 0.019 euros per liter , while opening the door to payment in dollars, a currency that is increasingly gaining ground for daily transactions in the country.

"Gasoline, subsidized for the people of Venezuela, will cost 5,000 (bolivars) per liter," Maduro said after presenting a plan to make the quarantine more flexible for the new coronavirus.

The president explained that the fuel will be sold at this new price at 1,500 service stations throughout the country starting next Monday, when a five-day period of easing the quarantine begins.

All in all, this price of 0.019 euros will only guarantee drivers to refuel 120 liters of gasoline per month, in the case of vehicles, and 60 in the case of motorcycles.

Sale in dollars

Upon exceeding this consumption, Venezuelans will have to pay $ 0.50 per liter, an amount that will be the norm in 200 "premium" stations in the country, where the refuel will not have a subsidy.

The governor did not explain whether the price will be the marker for the two types of gasoline sold in the country, 91 and 95 octane.

This measure is part of a 90-day "pilot plan" to adjust the collection of gasoline. During the first week of execution, drivers will refuel according to the last number on their license plate, a program that was launched a month ago, when gasoline began to run out.

Before this increase, the price of the most expensive gasoline in Venezuela was 0.00006 bolivars, a symbolic amount that allowed 828,000,000 medium vehicles to be refueled with just one dollar changed at the official rate.

A shortage of weeks

"It is necessary to have a revaluation of this very important product," Maduro said about gasoline. "The time has come to move towards a new (price) policy," he added, noting that the fuel to be sold since Monday was purchased in Iran at international prices.

Venezuela has been suffering for weeks from a severe gasoline shortage that keeps thousands of citizens forming long lines in the vicinity of gas stations.

The government blamed the shortage on United States sanctions, which since 2017 has issued a battery of sanctions to pressure Maduro and force him to resign or accept "free elections."

But the opposition, led by the head of Parliament, Juan Guaidó, whom fifty countries recognize as the president-in-charge, transfers the blame for the shortage to Maduro himself.

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  • Venezuela
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