The President of the local affiliate of Shell, Pedro Pablo Cabral, yesterday accused the Dominican Electricity Corporation (CDE) of engaging in unfair competition. He said that CDE imported directly during 1998 some 2.3 million barrels of combustibles, without participation of authorized distributors and without paying the "differential tax" private distributors must pay that keeps local petrol prices much higher than world prices would prompt (this month the differential represents 59.1% of the cost of premium gasoline at the pump). The CDE imports represent 26.9% of national hydrocarbon consumption in 1998. Cabral called for eliminating market distortions, making CDE play by the same rules as other players in the energy market.
