In a new press conference from the Palacio de La Moneda, the undersecretary of Segegob, Gonzalo Arenas, addressed the agreement reached between the government and various truck driver unions to end the mobilizations over the increase in fuel prices. Specifically, the government decided to extend the freezing of fuel prices until March 31. Regarding this, the undersecretary confirmed that the measure will have a fiscal cost of up to US$900 million, as reported by La Tercera. "The information provided to us by the Treasury is that the fiscal cost for this year is approximately US$500 million and for next year it would be US$400 million. That is the official figure," he stated. "Now, making a precise calculation on this issue is always risky because we do not know how much we will have to cover to avoid the increases. Therefore, they are always approximations," he added. When asked about the reasons why a greater reduction is being considered for diesel than for gasoline, Arenas responded: "If you look at the latest increases, the latest increases in gasoline have been practically half the increases in diesel. In recent months, gasoline has risen between 38 and 40 pesos, while diesel has risen between 80 and 90 pesos. Therefore, there was a much bigger problem with diesel." Along with that, he maintained: "On that issue, I also want to clarify something, because there is the impression that truck drivers and transporters are a spec..."
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In a new press conference from the Palacio de La Moneda, the Subsecretary of Segegob, Gonzalo Arenas, addressed the agreement reached between the government and various truckers' unions to end the mobilizations over fuel price increases. Specifically, the government decided to extend the freezing of fuel prices until March 31. Regarding this, the subsecretary confirmed that the measure will have a fiscal cost of up to US$900 million, as reported by La Tercera. "The information provided to us by the Ministry of Finance is that the fiscal cost for this year is approximately US$500 million and for next year it would be US$400 million. That is the official figure," he stated. "Now, making a precise calculation on this issue is always risky because we do not know how much we will have to cover to prevent the increases. Therefore, they are always approximations," he added. When asked about the reasons for considering a greater reduction for diesel than for gasoline, Arenas responded: "If you look at the latest increases, the latest increases in gasoline have been practically half the increases in diesel. In recent months, gasoline has risen between 38 and 40 pesos, while diesel has risen between 80 and 90 pesos. Therefore, there was a much bigger problem with diesel." Along with this, he maintained: "On that issue, I also want to clarify something, because there is the impression that truckers and transporters are a kind of privileged group, that they are practically getting great profits from this situation." "I want to tell you that the first ones we meet and the ones we dialogue with the most are the small transporters, and small transporters are currently going through a gigantic economic crisis because, unlike the large ones, they do not have contracts that can be indexed and, therefore, have their rates adjusted. In many cases, they are being passed on a large part of the cost of the fuel increase," he explained. In that line, he concluded that "the effort towards them is not a privilege, it is not something they obtained and that they cannot be entitled to, but rather refers to concrete help for an economic sector of the country that is very important and is suffering very harsh economic consequences." Finally, when consulted about the government's balance regarding the number of truckers who were still mobilized, Arenas stated that "according to the latest police report, this morning more than two-thirds of the trucks had already left the route, and therefore, a minority of one-third remained in very specific places. For example, in La Araucanía, where the strike has also just been lifted." In this way, of the nearly 2,800 trucks that were still mobilized, "slightly less than 1,200 or 1,000" remained, according to the subsecretary.