For the second consecutive month, the Uruguayan government increases the price of gasoline and diesel. | Photo: Las económicas
Montevideo, July 2 (RHC)-- The Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM) of Uruguay announced an increase in the price of fuels from the early hours of Thursday, July 1st. The new prices will mean an increase in rates for the second consecutive month.
The governmental disposition affects the prices of gasoline and diesel oil, while the supergas rate has not been modified. Beginning Thursday, the price of gasoline has been increased by 0.34 pesos per liter, while diesel has increased by 0.41 pesos per liter, stated the MIEM.
In this respect, the MIEM informed that the increase in tariffs is in correspondence "with international values and responds to the monthly variation in the price of oil, which has been on the rise since the beginning of this year."
The MIEM communiqué makes reference to the fact that the measure responds to the new Import Parity Price mechanism, in which the updating of fuel prices in the South American country is inscribed.
}In response to the increase in fuel prices and highlighting the frequency of the increases, as well as their effects on the working class, several members of the Frente Amplio and union organizations criticized the measure of the Government of President Luis Lacalle Pou.
In this sense, Deputy Gerardo Núñez declared that measures such as this one punish "the pocket of the Uruguayan people" and constitute another reason in favor of the referendum against the neoliberal Urgent Consideration Law. Ivonne Passada, a former member of the Uruguayan parliament, said that in the country "everything is going up, except salaries."
In turn, the president of the Union of Officials of the National Administration of Fuels, Alcohol and Portland (Fancap), Gerardo Rodríguez, expressed his "energetic rejection" of the government measure to increase fuel prices.
In a press conference, broadcast live on Fancap's Facebook account, Rodríguez described the measure as inopportune in the context of the "deep social and economic crisis" that Uruguay is going through. According to the union leader "increasing fuel for the second time, in a little more than 20 days, is detrimental."
The previous increase in fuel prices in Uruguay was 12 percent, and occurred on June 7th, when the authorities reported that the measure was the beginning of the application of the new pricing system.
