Industrialists in Costa Rica are opposed to the appeal lodged by deputies against the presidential decree that prevented the rise of 72% in the price of LP gas and 35% in bunker fuel.
From a statement issued by the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica:
The Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica said that nullifying the presidential decree on Sector Policy, as several Deputies want to do, will affect employment.Last week, deputy Luis Alberto Vasquez Castro and other lawmakers presented an appeal to the Constitutional Court against the decree by President Luis Guillermo Solis of January, a decree that prevented the ARESEP from changing the methodology of fuel prices.This presidential decree, put an end to the disproportionate increase in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), 72%, and bunker fuel, 35%, which are key materials for the industrial sector.
Concern over the serious impact on the productive sector of a 72% increase in gas prices has faded, while accusations of inefficiency and a monopolistic state oil company still persist.
Although the ARESEP is expecting to submit to a public hearing the new pricing methodology which would eliminate the subsidy from the cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), asphalt and bunker fuel, and increase the cost of a 25 pound cylinder from ¢ 6,410 to ¢8,470, the Government of the Republic has decreed a new sector policy for prices, in order to avoid the increases proposed by the regulator.
The rise in prices and fuel supply problems in markets like Colombia explain the 10% increase in sales of bunker fuel in the first half of the year.
After experiencing a slight decrease in the rate of business growth, companies engaged in the storage and sale of marine or bunker fuel say they feel there is an improvement in the activity. In previous years, vessels transiting the Canal were buying fuel in Colombia and other Caribbean countries.
The price of bunker in Guatemala has increased 36% over the last 12 months.
In March 2010, the cost per gallon was $ 1.79, reaching $ 2.45 in March 2011.
"Roberto Barrera, independent expert on energy issues, said that bunker maintained an upward trend similar to the barrel of oil," reported Prensalibre.com.
20% of electrical generation in the country is produced by burning bunker.