The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador suspended this Sunday the collection of two fuel taxes for three months and the food import tariff, this as measures to face the inflation that affects salvadorans.
“We are facing a global crisis that affects us all, but we will continue working so that the impact in our country is less,” the president of the Legislative body, Ernesto Castro, published on social networks following finishing an extraordinary session.
The Nayib Bukele government presented several reforms on Saturday to “alleviate” the effects of inflation, which in 2021 was higher than the records of the last 20 years, according to local media.
The legislators, without previously studying the measures, approved suspending the collection of charges for the Stabilization Fund for Economic Development, known as the war tax, and the Contribution for the Stabilization of Rates, used to partially subsidize public transport .
These two taxes will reduce the price of a gallon (3.8 liters) of gasoline by 26 cents.
The Special Temporary Law to Combat Inflation in the Price of Basic Products was also approved, which would exempt food from import taxes.
Congress is expected to meet once more this Sunday to approve other measures requested by the Bukele Executive.
El Salvador closed last January with an accumulated inflation of 0.62%, higher by 0.35 percentage points than the index for January 2021, according to figures from the General Directorate of Statistics and Censuses (Digestyc).
According to data from the Central Reserve Bank (BCR), El Salvador registered an annual variation in inflation of approximately 6.5% last January, while in 2021 it closed with 6.11%.
