Against the economic crisis, Venezuela increases the price of gasoline

A Venezuelan man walks past a sculpture at the entrance to the national oil company PDVSA in Caracas, May 17, 2019. (illustration image) REUTERS / Ivan Alvarado

Text by: Benjamin Delille Follow

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on May 30 an increase in the price of gasoline. So far, Venezuelans have only given a few worthless tickets to the country's pump attendant. Gasoline will now have a cost. These new prices will take effect this Sunday, May 31.

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From our correspondent in Caracas,

It is a small revolution for Venezuela . During an address on public television on Saturday May 30, Nicolas Maduro announced that three new methods were going to be put in place to supply himself with gasoline. The only resource that resisted inflation, it had become almost free, but the severe shortage that has plagued the country for more than two months has left the Venezuelan president no other choice than to review fuel prices.

The first method concerns vehicles used for the public transport of passengers and goods. For those, gasoline will be 100% subsidized, so it will continue to be free. The second decision concerns people with a "homeland notebook" , a system set up in 2017 which allows them to receive social assistance and food parcels at preferential prices. These will pay 5,000 bolivars per liter of gasoline, barely two cents, up to a limit of 120 liters per month.

A historic decision

Beyond this limit, and for all those who do not have a "homeland book", they will have to pay the new international price set by the government at 50 cents, or about one-eighth of the minimum wage. It is the third modality and it will only concern 200 service stations which will be managed by private companies.

It is therefore a historic decision, because it puts an end to the state monopoly in the distribution of fuel and for the first time, gasoline will be sold in a currency other than the bolivar. A decision which comes moreover after the arrival of four Iranian oil tankers last week and that a fifth should not delay any longer.

These tankers will alleviate the gasoline shortage, but they increase the tension with Washington which sees with a negative eye this rapprochement between Tehran and Caracas.

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  • Venezuela
  • Nicolas Maduro
  • Economy
  • Oil

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