Venezuela Considers Raising Salary of Public Workers to $60 – Linking the Bolivar to the Petro
Venezuelan deputy and Vice President of the Committee for Energy and Petroleum in the National Assembly (AN), Rodolfo Sanz, suggested the possibility of a plan to revalue the bolivar. “We must anchor it, go towards a scheme that allows us to bring the minimum salary to $60, which would equal one petro,” said Sanz in an interview on the TV show Vladimir a la 1. “We are proposing it in the public administration.”
During the show broadcast by Globovisión, the deputy for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) explained that he agrees with the proposal made by fellow parliamentarians to anchor the bolivar to the petro. In this way, the Venezuelan currency would have the value of one petro and progress could be made towards a wage increase, without impacting inflation.
Regarding the backing of the currency, he stated that “the limit to issuing money should not be the amount of money in international reserves within the Central Bank. It must be the real production capacity in full development.”
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“We have to reset this economy”
The parliamentarian said that in a second phase of the economic proposal, creating a “convertible bolivar” would be proposed, in addition to issuing a new set of currencies with new bills.
“We have to reset this economy completely. The imbalances of this economy won’t be resolved, in my opinion, except with anchoring in the first phase,” he said.
Will the complete subsidy on gasoline return?
In Sanz’s opinion, “it is already difficult to return to the absolute subsidy scheme” for gasoline. “It is economically impossible to sustain it and it is inconvenient for finances and fuel production in the country,” he noted.
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“Producing an adjustment in the price of gasoline in foreign currency, referenced in international prices, must be preceded by an adjustment in the consumption capacity of Venezuelan society,” he said.
He also mentioned that “a time must come when we adjust gasoline consumption downwards, so that we have a surplus for export.”
On the other hand, Sanz pointed out that crude oil production is increasing. “The recovery in oil production is certain. So far this year we have increased it by nearly 200,000 barrels.”
As a member of the Permanent Commission on Energy and Petroleum of the National Assembly, he also reported that, after Easter, the commission will begin tours throughout the country to accompany the recovery process of companies associated with the energy sector.
The Siderúrgica del Orinoco (Sidor), “is at 30% of its installed capacity; it has a capacity of 4.1 million tons of liquid steel; what later becomes a product,” he said. “This year it could be producing 1.2 million tons of liquid steel, which would be transformed into about 800,900 tons of products.”
Electrical issue
Regarding the electricity issue, the deputy Rodolfo Sanz said that the “problems are basically concentrated in the transmission lines.”
“We have an important source of electricity generation in Guyana where, with the last blackout, the problems have been solved,” said Sanz. “The workers, the engineers of Corpoelec, have done an extraordinary job at Guri. We also have a good part of the thermoelectric generation, which fails because some plants are powered by gas and others by diesel.”
Featured image: Venezuelan Parliament considers adjusting the salary of workers. File photo.
(RedRadioVE) by Marianna Torres
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
