Finance Minister Jose Lois Malkum told reporters from El Caribe newspaper that there is no mechanism available to the government that could put a stop to the price increases announced for February?s electric bills. He said that the government would intervene only if the price of a barrel of oil reaches US$50. In a separate interview, economist Andy Dauhajre, who is also a member of the Presidential commission on the energy sector, said in a TV interview that this was just something the population would ?have to get used to.? Dauhajre said: ?It is very painful, I am telling you, although we must recognize that the supply of power has improved due to the efforts of the Superintendence of Electricity.? He admitted that the swelling price of oil had not been taken into account when the government decided to remove the subsidies.
