VALVERDE (THE IRON), 7 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The general secretary of the Canary Islands Coalition (CC) and candidate for the inauguration as president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, has sealed this Friday in a three-way meeting with the president of the Cabildo de El Hierro, Javier Armas, and representatives of the DISA in the island, its commitment to eliminate the fuel tax on the ‘green islands’ and lower the price of fuel by between 0.22 and 0.26 cents per litre.
In an appearance before the media, he stressed that the solution to the high prices stems from a “political will” of his party so that people from El Hierro, Gomeros and La Palma do not pay more expensive fuel than the rest of the Canaries.
Apart from the elimination of the tax, he has also said that there will be a subsidy for the company –the only one that operates on the island– in order to offset the costs generated by the transport and storage of fuel on the island and that the company has estimated at 0.40 cents per liter.
Armas has pointed out that this measure will be taken in the first Governing Council once Clavijo takes office and has assured that this decision is a “very important first step” to work on lowering the price of fuel.
The El Hierro president thanked the “gesture” of the future president of the Government because the autonomous community is going to stop receiving that income but at the same time he has indicated that “it is not a big deal” since the El Hierro market barely represents 1% of the consumption in the archipelago.
Armas, who is also a candidate for the Senate for AHI, has taken advantage of his appearance before the media to point out that if he obtains a bill in the Upper House, the same as CC in Congress, he will work to achieve public aid for transportation made out of fuel.
The director of Disa Retail, Bernabé Rodríguez, was “optimistic” about a measure that will allow prices to be lowered and guaranteed that the drop will be immediate as soon as the elimination of the tax materializes or the extra logistics costs are compensated.
The compromise on fuel prices reached by AHI and DISA comes after a period marked by social protests in non-capital islands due to the high price that their residents have to pay for each liter of fuel.
Rodríguez has admitted that the fuel in El Hierro is more expensive because it is necessary to deal with a market of “low volume” and has denied that his company operates under a monopoly regime since “nobody has wanted to come”, the same as other large companies in the food subsector.
He has also recognized that “criticism” has hurt them due to the high price of fuel when it is a “great effort” for them to maintain the three service stations on the island and he understands that the measure would not be necessary on the island of La Palma because the market is “more mature” and there is competition, unlike on El Hierro and La Gomera.