All Ecuadorians will agree that subsidies should only be given to people who really need them. And not to companies that are inefficient or simulate productivity based on State subsidies, which are gifts that come out of all of our pockets. That is why we agree with President Noboa’s willingness to decide on this issue as soon as possible, when he has political capital that must be spent on structural issues of high national importance.
Fuel subsidies are unfair because they favor those who do not need them, such as diesel for the shrimp industry, which has developed authentic productivity based on its technological progress and has managed to sell no less than 8 to the world. billion dollars last year. Also the state subsidies to the three social security entities are unfair because the beneficiaries are only 34% of the workers, while 66% do not have social security.
The sincere fuel subsidy should be only for ordinary people, through the delivery of bonuses to bus owners in the proportion that exceeds the current price of extra gasoline, and nothing more. Because if we puncture the measure with abusive exceptions, its results will be distorted. Furthermore, they must be stable measures so as not to cause further disruption to our economic management.
In this regard, we must avoid addressing approaches such as the case of VAT, which wants to be raised in two years and lowered after the third, which does not address the need to finance structural investments that mark a virtuous trend that every government respects. This reminds me of what Raúl Prebish said: that correct economists study to develop a better quality of life, but pocket politicians do a kind of economic carpentry that distorts positive expectations.
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