BRIEFS: Business

Gas stations fined for high prices

As of yesterday, the Autoridad de Protección al Consumidor y Defensa de la Competencia (Acodeco) had levied fines against four gas stations for not complying with an order capping prices.

The stations, which were each fined $5,000, were Shell Las Sabanas, Texaco Los Andares de Parque Lefevre , AB Altos de Tataré in Pacora and Servicentro Nacional in Curundú.

Today the government will announce the new fuel prices, according to industry sources. They are expected to drop because the price of crude oil has dropped to about $90 a barrel.

Similarly, an inter-agency team will announce a new strategy to be adopted for regulating the gasoline market. The team is made up of the Secretaría de Energía, los ministerios de Economía y Finanzas and Comercio e Industrias and the Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas, among others.

On Sept. 24, the government announced that it would contribute $6 million to help control gasoline prices. As a condition of this payment, the government set a price cap on gasoline, and warned stations they could be fined for charging higher prices.