(Reference image) The first increase in the price of diesel is coming.
Photo: EFE – FAZRY ISMAIL
Since the beginning of the mandate of Gustavo Petro The need to raise the price of fuel in Colombia has been insisted on, since the deficit reported by the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund (FEPC) has proven to be unsustainable and burdensome for public spending.
It must be remembered that this fund was created more than a decade ago to protect consumers from variations in the price of gasoline and diesel in the international market. In other words, the Government had been subsidizing these increases, thus keeping prices stable.
According to what was stated at the time by the Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonillathe FEPC closed 2023 with a deficit of $20 billion, a figure that is lower than that recorded in previous years due to the increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline.
Even so, the increase to diesel gallonwhich is also necessary, because if it is not done, the fund’s deficit would close 2024 at $12 billion.
Also read: Diesel hike: the “hot potato” that the government and truckers throw at each other
As this is the main source of energy for the transportation sector in Colombia, there have been multiple concerns that have been expressed to the portfolio about the possible increase, since today fuel represents just over 40% of the operating costs of this sector. of the economy.
Make diesel more expensive (or ACPM) would translate into greater inflationary pressure, since transporters would have to raise their rates and with this, those costs would be passed on to the final consumer.
To avoid major trauma in this transition, the Ministry of Transportation and the Treasury have been meeting with the transport unions in the country. The latter have stated that the solution is not to raise the price, but to review the formula in how it is calculated, with the intention that the greater burdens are transmitted to other sectors that are part of their production processes.
After all this, the Ministry of Finance decided to raise the price, but only for large consumers. Recently the head of that portfolio told the media that “the decree for large consumers comes out this weekend (which equates the price that this group pays for diesel with the international reference). It must already be signed by the president.”
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In short, it is expected that this weekend the decree that will govern the increase will be published, already with the signature of Gustavo Petro. This will only apply to large consumers, understood as those who have a demand of more than 20,000 gallons per year (large ton dump trucks and mega tractors, among other types of machinery).
“That is the first advance. What follows is, effectively, how we arrange an increase in the price of diesel to make one or two moves this year,” Minister Bonilla concluded.
So the meetings with the transporters’ union will continue, seeking the best way so that the deficit in the fund does not continue to grow, without creating greater trauma in this important sector of the economy.
