According to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the country has saved an estimated RD$64 billion as a result of the lower international crude oil and petroleum derivative prices. Speaking yesterday, Wednesday 11 February 2016, Minister Jose Del Castillo Savinon said that the electricity sector subsidy fell by some US$400 million in 2015 after reaching US$1.3 billion in 2014.
The minister added that the country has been recognized as the one that has most applied the reductions on international fuel prices, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). In the case of regular diesel fuel, the country’s most commonly used fuel, prices went down 104%. In the case of gasoline, the reduction has been more than RD$100 per gallon.
Del Castillo Savinon said that further price reductions would be increasingly difficult to apply because of taxes and profit margins, which are covered by the Hydrocarbon Law of 2000 that can only be modified by Congress.
During an interview with the director of the El Nacional newspaper, Bolivar Diaz Gomez, Minister Castillo said that when it is no longer necessary to provide a subsidy for the electricity sector, it would then be possible to apply the lower oil prices to the electricity rates.
