Abinader: Government subsidizes fuels this week by RD$500 MM

President Luis Abinader announced this Friday that the Government would subsidize all fuels for an amount of RD$500 million this week to prevent the increases from reaching consumers, especially the general population.

“We are living I very difficult times internationally due to an economic storm provoked by COVID-19, and which really has unprecedented impacts and effects in economic terms,” the president said.

While participating in the inauguration of the Cacao Processing plant (CONACADO Industrial), Abinader said that yesterday, in the weekly meeting with the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Víctor -Ito- Bisonó, they approved the RD$500 million subsidies.

He said that the weekly average that they have subsidized is over RD$400 million.

At the event, the governor also affirmed that they have managed to stabilize electric power in the last few days. However, he clarified that there is no slack energy generation in the country because there was no foresight in previous years.

Abinader gave an example that last Monday, the country registered a record energy demand of 3,150 megawatts.

For this reason, he added the head of state; when he came to the Government, they initiated a bidding process for 800 megawatts plants, already in process, and which is expected to be awarded by the end of this year.

He also revealed that they would sign contracts for the purchase of non-renewable energy for about 600 megawatts next week, which will be available between 12 and 18 months.

Outages and population

They are working in the short, medium, and long term to eliminate the deficit. “Blackouts are an embarrassment that we have had for many years. We are working diligently to eliminate them,” assured the president.