The President of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, signed a law on Tuesday that repeals a subsidy granted to state-owned Petroleos Paraguayos (Petropar) to lower the price of two of the most consumed fuels in the country.
Abdo Benitez sanctioned the initiative approved a day earlier by both houses of Congress, which repealed a bill that created a fund to stabilize the cost of fuels from a $100 million loan.
In addition, the regulation repealed a law endorsed by Parliament on March 24, which established “transitional measures” for the sale at subsidized prices of type III diesel and 93-octane gasoline on the network of state-owned Petroleos Paraguayos (Petropar).
With the new Law, identified as 6906 of 2022, the free pricing scheme is maintained in the Paraguayan market.
The presidential decision was announced when trucks from private fuel distributors complete their second day parked outside the Petropar headquarters, in the town of Villa Elisa (center).
The vendors warned that they would remain in place awaiting the president's approval of the Congress bill.
Distributors called Petropar's subsidy - which covers 14 per cent of the market - as unfair competition and warned of the possible bankruptcy and loss of some 30,000 jobs in that sector.
For their part, the truckers guilds, which are opposed to international credit, announced that in the coming days they will rule on the new law.
Fuel increases led truck drivers and other private drivers to call for protests on March 14, which lasted for more than a week with roadblocks.
(With information from EFE)
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