NewsWhore
08-03-2010, 02:40 PM
El Caribe reports that Hydrocarbons Law 112-00 was drafted to end the discretional management of the calculation of fuel prices to truly reflect the fluctuations on the international market. But El Caribe reports that the government has consistently failed to implement the law and has applied it with discretion.
El Caribe says that the law that was created to provide incentives for the rational consumption of fuel has served instead to motivate consumers to switch to propane for vehicular transport. The government taxes regular gasoline at RD$41.77 per gallon, while propane is exempt from taxes and thus costs RD$75.29, or RD$78.61 less than a gallon of regular gasoline.
In another clear violation of the law, when world market petrol prices were declining, the government did not reduce them in the same proportion as it has increased prices. Furthermore, the government has been known to refrain from price increases that would have been applied in times when it considered it politically inadvisable to do so, such as in the lead-up to the presidential and congressional elections.
The deficit is attributed to an increased pace of spending by the government as it sought to sweep the congressional election in May 2010, as it successfully did, gaining control of Congress and thus the Judicial Branch as of 16 August.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)
El Caribe says that the law that was created to provide incentives for the rational consumption of fuel has served instead to motivate consumers to switch to propane for vehicular transport. The government taxes regular gasoline at RD$41.77 per gallon, while propane is exempt from taxes and thus costs RD$75.29, or RD$78.61 less than a gallon of regular gasoline.
In another clear violation of the law, when world market petrol prices were declining, the government did not reduce them in the same proportion as it has increased prices. Furthermore, the government has been known to refrain from price increases that would have been applied in times when it considered it politically inadvisable to do so, such as in the lead-up to the presidential and congressional elections.
The deficit is attributed to an increased pace of spending by the government as it sought to sweep the congressional election in May 2010, as it successfully did, gaining control of Congress and thus the Judicial Branch as of 16 August.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#2)