The director of the National Planning Office says that the government has cut its expenses in half by reducing its advertising, fuel and administrative expenditures as part of a an austerity plan to compensate for the increase in fuel prices. Rafael Camilo, director of ONAPLAN, said that the increase in fuel prices has wiped out the differential between taxes on fuel consumption and the actual cost of fuel. He said the government’s priority is to complete the major construction projects at present underway before August 2000.
