MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan pumps ask gov't not to rise price of fuel until next month

Lacalle said Ancap needed its accounts balanced

Gasoline retailers in Uruguay have asked the Government of President Luis Lacalle Pou to put on hold “for a few more days” the increase in the price of fuel reportedly to be announced shortly.

The Gasoline Sellers Union (Unvenu) explained that as drivers flocked to pumps they have not been able to meet the demand of the last few days and the situation is expected to remain unchanged early this week.

The guild asked the government to postpone the increase at least until June 1 as demand grew exponentially over the past few days, something that has been a common occurrence at the end of each month as drivers fear a new increase with the turning of the calendar.

The state-run oil company “Ancap did not manage to satisfy the demand of the stations on Saturday 28,” argued Unvenu through a statement. The document also pointed out that Ancap will not supply fuel Tuesday due to a labor protest.

In that scenario, vendors requested the alleged increase be “delayed for a few days so long as we can recompose the fuel stock to avoid further financial problems at service stations.”

Lacalle told reporters Saturday that the Government had not yet made up its mind on the increase. ”We are in talks with the Minister of Industry (Omar Paganini) and the president of Ancap (Alejandro Stipanicic),“ he said. However, he insisted Ancap needed to have its accounts balanced. Otherwise, ”we know what happens.”

Uruguay's Energy and Water Services Regulatory Unit (Ursea) Friday released its latest report on Import Parity (PPI), an index which mentioned a possible increase of 7.16% for Premium naphtha, 6.82% for Super, 4.61% for 50S diesel, and 4.60% for 10S diesel, supergas (cooking gas) would go down 2.97%.