The Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonilla, announced that this Friday The National Government will pay Ecopetrol 5.1 billion pesos for subsidies on gasoline and diesel that Colombians receive through the operation of the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund (Fpec).
According to the criteria of
This money corresponds to the Fpec deficit for the second quarter of 2023, since these payments are made one year late. This will be the second payment that Ecopetrol will receive in 2024, since in March it was paid 7.8 billion pesos for this same reason.
“The operation is coordinated with Ecopetrol and demonstrates the commitment to continue fulfilling these obligations to protect the financial health of the oil company,” said Minister Ricardo Bonilla.
As the minister explained, This payment will be made with the issuance of TES, like the other payments that are pending, while the Fpec deficit is closed. This will happen when the local price of diesel is equal to the international price, as happened with gasoline.
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Estimates from the Ministry of Finance indicate that The Fpec deficit will be 11.6 billion pesos in 2024, if there are no increases in the price of diesel that Colombians pay. In 2025, it would be 12.8 trillion pesos.
Between 2022 and 2023, diesel represented 62.6 percent of the Fpec deficit, since increases in the price of gasoline, which began in October 2022, led to closing the gap between local and international prices of this fuel.
In 2022 alone, the Fpec deficit reached 37 trillion pesos, of which, 20 billion pesos were for subsidizing the price of diesel and the remaining 17 billion pesos for gasoline.
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The tax reforms
of 2021 and 2022 were consumed by the Fpec
“37 billion pesos are two tax reforms. The tax reforms of 2021 and 2022 were consumed by the Fpec“said Minister Ricardo Bonilla. For this reason, he pointed out that the root solution to this situation is to adjust fuel prices.
In that sense, this week the Ministry of Finance issued a decree that establishes the rules for the increase in the price of diesel paid by large consumers, that is, those who consume more than 20,000 gallons per month.
To determine when and how much the increase will be for other consumers, the minister assured that new meetings will have to be called with the freight transport unions.
Photo:Istock.
The risks of inflation
The Minister of Finance assured that if the increases in the price of gasoline, that began in October 2022, currently inflation would be 5.16 percent, a figure lower than the 7.16 percent annual rate in May 2024.
Furthermore, he reiterated that increases in the price of diesel are still pending, and when this occurs, there would be a 1.4 percent impact on annual inflation. The Ministry’s intention is to finish the price adjustments in 2025.
Minister Ricardo Bonilla also highlighted that Three risks to inflation still persist. The first is the pending increases in the price of diesel; and the second, that increases in the price of energy cannot be controlled.
While the third risk is related to the La Niña phenomenon and how much it can affect food prices, because “La Niña can cause more havoc” than the El Niño phenomenon.
