Tonight, on national television, President Nayib Bukele announced immediate and medium-term actions in the face of the series of crises that the world is going through, referring especially to the conflict between Russia and NATO.
The president chronologically described the events of recent years that have negatively affected the world and, therefore, Salvadorans. He described how the pandemic became the most devastating in the last 100 years. Then, the crisis of the distribution chain, in which there was a stagnation of containers around the world, and as a consequence, we have reached the highest inflation in recent decades.
Nayib Bukele evidenced the impact by showing statistics of the alarming increase in the prices of materials such as oil and gas, and food such as corn and wheat.
Of the current conflict between Russia, Ukraine and NATO, he mentioned that we are yet to go through the consequences, in which we are about to see an inflation even more drastic than the current one of 7.9%, the highest since 1982.
The Salvadoran president then announced the measures the state would take, calling them “11 measures against global inflation.”
1. Suspension for three months of the fuel stabilization fund tax:
A $0.16 savings on the price of a gallon of gasoline plus:
2. Suspension for three months of the transport contribution tax (COTRANS):
Reduction of an additional $0.10 per gallon of fuel totaling a discount of $0.26 per gallon of fuel.
3. Deployment of inspectors on ships and gas stations:
To evaluate whether the quality corresponds to the type of gasoline that El Salvador imports.
4. Law on sanctions for abuses in the trade of products derived from hydrocarbons:
Increase in economic and criminal sanctions for theft and other irregularities with hydrocarbons.
5. Traditional subsidy increased from $8.04 (discount in propane gas)
6. Define maximum propane prices
President Bukele highlighted that 40% of families in El Salvador can buy a 25-pound propane cylinder at $11.13, while 60% at $3.09, being the cheapest prices in the region.
7. Guaranteed measure of propane gas bought:
Through supervising propane gas distributors by having inspectors with adequate tools to guarantee the correct volumes of gas are sold to the population.
8. Increase in the number of VMT and PNC inspectors on public transportation:
VMT inspectors and agents of the national civil police will be deployed to deal with complaints of an increase in public transport fees.
9. CEL will increase renewable energy production and renegotiate contracts with distributors:
To ensure that the cost of electricity does not increase due to the global crisis and inflation.
10. Exemption of 1 year of import tax on specific products:
Among these products are rice, beans, cornmeal, wheat flour, milk, yellow and white corn, oranges, potatoes, bananas, cabbage, tomatoes, whole wheat and animal feed, aiming to increase competition to expand product offerings to reduce prices.
11. Authorization to import food products to suppliers with permits issued in the following countries:
Albania, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladeshi, Barbados, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Qatar, Chile, China, Cyprus, Colombia, martin coast, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United States, Estonia, Ethiopia, Philippines, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Morocco, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, Netherlands, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Suns India, Turkey and Ukraine.