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<\/a><\/p>\nLA PAZ (Reuters) – Bolivia’s government has called on the armed forces to tighten border controls to curb the smuggling of state-subsidized fuels, a move it believes will save state coffers some $250 million per year.<\/p>\n
Keeping fuel prices steady, currently 3.74 bolivianos ($0.5452) per liter for gasoline and 3.72 bolivianos per liter for diesel, cost Bolivia $1.7 billion last year alone, according to data from state oil firm YPFB.<\/p>\n
The proliferation of subsidized fuel on the black market and its use in illegal mining and drug trafficking, “is bleeding Bolivia’s economy,” the nation’s hydrocarbons minister Franklin Molina said at a news conference on Thursday. “We all pay for the subsidy,” he said.<\/p>\n
The government is calling on the armed forces, police, customs and YPFB personnel to beef up oversight, a move aimed at averting fuel shortages in the upcoming farming season in Santa Cruz region, the Andean nation’s largest food producer.<\/p>\n
Bolivia is committed to protecting its subsidy-reliant, big-state economic model despite deficit risks and is planning an “aggressive” push into gas exploration, the economy minister told Reuters in late December.<\/p>\n
The landlocked nation is a key gas producer and subsidizes the sector to rein in fuel prices as well as the production of goods and services. This has helped control inflation.<\/p>\n
($1 = 6.8600 bolivianos)<\/p>\n
\n(Reporting by Daniel Ramos; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Bill Berkrot)<\/p>\n
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