SANTO DOMINGO. – Dominican Republic’s Economy Minister affirmed Tuesday that the Government applied an 8% jump in the light bill to goad the population into reducing its consumption and that of the other fuels.

Temístocles Montas said in a critical international situation as the current one, in which a of barrel oil costs more than 100 dollars, the Government made that decision that will take effect in June (tomorrow) aware that the effects of that crisis could be worse for the country.

“Here, we ourselves sometimes reach the conclusion that people have yet to understand that here there’s a crisis spurred by the international situation, because when one goes out and sees the amount of traffic jams you get the impression that the people haven’t fathomed still that there’s a need to ration fuel consumption and the use of electricity," the official said.

Interviewed by Marino Zapete and Edith Febles on Channel 7, Montas said it was decided to increase the electric bill since that’s the main signal with which the Government can caution the population that the country is forced to rationalize the use of energy, because otherwise the uncontrolled consumption of petroleum would have a very negative effect on Dominican Republic’s current account balance. “If that situation surfaces, the country will have to finance that deficit with external debt, because it should be known that all current account deficits mean a deficit not only for the Government, but for all Dominican society also.”