The president of the Dominican Petroleum Refinery, a Venezuelan company, has announced that the Dominican government’s accumulated debt totaled RD$4.4 million in the first five months of the year because of the authorities’ decision to absorb any increases in the price of petroleum. The first five months of the year saw the final phase of the presidential campaign when the ruling party candidate was leading by a narrow margin. As reported in El Dia, Francisco Mendez of Refidomsa said that in addition to this debt the government had taken out a loan for three shipments of asphalt for the National Road Paving Plan executed nationwide. Mendez said that in the first five months of the year, petroleum prices passed the US$110 per barrel mark. Mendez was speaking on the D’Agenda program, interviewed by Hector Herrera Cabral. Mendez said that the government would pay the debt using the profits from the operation of the company over the past two years and with funds from the supplementary budget submitted to Congress.
Mendez denied the government had frozen fuel prices for electoral reasons. He said it is customary for the government to refrain from passing on abrupt increases in the price of petroleum to consumers. “That is why in the first five months of the year, when the price of the barrel of petroleum peaked at US$110, the government chose instead to pick up more debt with Refidomsa, and this reached RD$4.4 million for the period. He said that now that the price of petroleum is dropping, the government is reducing the debt.