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Updated June 1st, 2020 at 01:23 IST

Gasoline to be sold at world prices in Venezuela

Residents of Venezuela's capital Caracas have been camped out in lines for hours and even days to get a limited amount of gasoline for their vehicles.

Gasoline to be sold at world prices in Venezuela
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Residents of Venezuela's capital Caracas have been camped out in lines for hours and even days to get a limited amount of gasoline for their vehicles.

The wait remained long on Sunday, but the hope is that beginning Monday those lines are expected to lessen given the sale of Iranian gasoline to the public.

On Saturday, President Nicolas Maduro announced a dual pricing scheme for gasoline that includes an increase in fuel to be sold at international prices in 200 stations run by private businesses, starting on Monday.

The international price set is 50-cents a litre for gasoline and it can be paid in any currency or the Petro cryptocurrency, Maduro announced on state television.

"I don't see it as so expensive or so cheap but if this really is going to solve our problems, we'll know then", said Mayerli Gonzalez as she waited to get gas on Sunday.

"Let's wait and see how it all works out."

Also starting on Monday, as part of the new plan, subsidised gasoline will be sold at more than 1,0000 state gas stations across the country at 5,000 bolivars (about 2 cents) per litre.

Maduro said that people could purchase up to 120 liters per month of subsidised gasoline for vehicles and 60 liters for motorcycles.

The increase in fuel prices occurs in the midst of a complex economic and social crisis facing the South American nation, overwhelmed by hyperinflation, shortages of some basic goods, and a recession that is feared to be exacerbated by the global depression generated by the new coronavirus pandemic and the quarantine imposed by the government to prevent the spread of the virus.

The increase in gasoline was for decades a hot topic that many leaders decided to postpone following an increase in 1989 that triggered violent protests in the Venezuelan capital and surrounding areas that left several hundred people dead.

 

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Published June 1st, 2020 at 01:23 IST

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