"The Gas Bonus subsidy will be adjusted 'immediately' from 228 to 470 pesos for all beneficiaries, and an additional 400,000 pesos will be added. This amount will be sufficient for beneficiaries to cover the cost of approximately half a 25-pound tank of gas.".
SANTO DOMINGO– “Wewill have to make adjustments and modifications to the budget given this special situation of distortion and inflation of all raw materials in the world,” declared President Luis Abinader today, in his accountability report to the National Congress.
He acknowledged that inflation is the government's main economic concern, and to address it, he announced that his administration will increase direct social assistance, deploy special food sales programs and targeted subsidies, such as the distribution of more Supérate cards, and adjust the Gas Bonus subsidy to 470 pesos.
In response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which will have economic consequences worldwide, it was announced that starting next week, 300,000 new cards from the Supérate program will be offered to vulnerable people selected by the Single System of Beneficiaries (Siuben).
The Gas Bonus subsidy will also be adjusted “immediately” from 228 to 470 pesos for all beneficiaries, and an additional 400,000 pesos will be added. “This amount will be sufficient for beneficiaries to cover the cost of approximately half a 25-pound tank of gas. The last adjustment was made in 2008,” he said.
He indicated that for the economic dining halls, whose number has already been increased in this government from 38 to 51 and from 20,000 to 66,000 rations, it is being managed that in this year 54 new centers will be installed, for a total of 105 dining halls in the same number of municipalities throughout the national territory, raising to 136 thousand rations of cooked meals daily during the next months.
For the agricultural sector, he announced that the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and SMEs is monitoring the prices of key agricultural commodities such as wheat, soybeans, and corn. He also stated that the minister has been authorized to subsidize up to 10% of any potential price increases resulting from the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Fuel prices
Regarding the increase in fuel prices, he reported that this year the government has subsidized 2.6 billion pesos and last year 13 billion pesos.
"The government is making budgetary provisions and implementing spending control measures to continue subsidizing and prevent the full increase from being reflected in fuel prices," he assured.
“We are going to do everything in our power to mitigate the inflationary effects and protect the well-being of Dominicans,” he emphasized.
“Imported inflation has been the main cause of the increase in domestic prices,” Abinader said. “To give you a clear idea of the impact that international oil and petroleum product prices have on the cost of the basic food basket in a non-oil economy like ours, it suffices to say that 33.1 percent of the 2021 inflation rate is explained by the increase in the prices of regular and premium gasoline, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas.”.
He indicated that on August 14, 2020, the price of a barrel of oil was $42 and today it is $92, that is, an increase of 120%.
“Despite this increase, fuel prices in the country have risen by a much smaller proportion, specifically 35 percent on average, thanks in part to a subsidy that has exceeded 13 billion pesos in 2021,” he said.
He also indicated that the approximately 70% increase in the price of imported inputs for the agricultural industry, such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and sorghum, resulted in a rise in the prices of mass-consumption products in the family basket, such as fresh chicken, soybean oil, and bread.
“As can be seen, just the direct impact on inflation of the aforementioned items, which were affected by increases in international commodity prices, explains 43.1 percent of inflation , not including indirect effects that could well bring this percentage to a value well above 50 percent,” he said.
Text rewritten with publication from Diario Libre
