More money for LPG subsidy

[NewsWhore]

Deputies from all the main political parties are in agreement that the government should find the RD$2.4 billion needed to continue the subsidy on propane (LPG) for the rest of 2007. PRD deputy Alberto Atallah and PRSC deputy Marino Collante said that this was not the right time for the government to remove the subsidy. The legislators said that the economic situation that most citizens are in could not withstand such a blow. They said that the subsidy is a "social issue", which should be focused on the poorest. According to Atallah, the government should channel any request for these funds through Congress, and it would be approved. Collante said that while the subsidy needed to be abolished, this was not the right time to do this. Treasury (Hacienda) Minister Vicente Bengoa revealed that the subsidy was costing the government RD$400 million per month. Since propane prices were placed on the same level as gasoline and diesel fuel, the price of a gallon of propane has gone from RD$25 per gallon to RD$50 per gallon for 'household' use. Bengoa told reporters that the funds allocated for the subsidy had been used up by the end of the first week in June, and that the Executive would send a request to Congress for the additional RD$2.4 billion. Bengoa blamed the early consumption of the subsidy budget, in part, on the fact that thousands of vehicles have been converted from gasoline to run on Liquid Petroleum Gas.
News reports indicate that the subsidy will be maintained, with a budget amendment sent to Congress.

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