Recope Appeals Aresep
Decision Of Monthly
Gasoline Price Changes
The Refinadora
Costarricense de
Petróleo (Recope) -
national refinery and
distributor of
combustibles - has
appealed a decision by
the Autoridad Reguladora
de Servicios Públicos (Aresep)
that would allow changes
to gasoline prices once
a month.
Recope says that the
methodology for changes
in prices require
technical and
operational changes,
while the Aresep
decision only takes into
account fluctuations of
the price of product.
The Recope says that the
automatic adjustment
does not take into
account the increase in
costs from operations
and wants the Aresep to
recognize the investment
in operations made by
refinery and its plans
for the future
uninterrupted delivery
of combustibles, and
reflected in increases.
The Aresep decided
earlier this week to fix
gasoline prices on the
second Friday of every
month.
The decision would allow
Recope a mechanism to
fluctuate its prices
depending on the
movement of crude oil
prices on world markets
and the current exchange
rate without having to
submit to a public
hearing for each
modification to prices
it wants to make.
The monthly changes
would still be subject
to a public hearing, as
ordered by the Sala
Constitucional
(Constitutional Court).
The Aresep's decision
schedules the public
hearing on a fixed date
for each month and
eliminates the
extraordinary hearings
that it would have to
organize each time
Recope wants to change
prices.
The magistrates of the
Constituational Court
eliminated the automatic
price adjustments as it
did not give the
consumer the opportunity
to give its opinion on
inreases. |
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