The Public Services Regulatory Authority (Aresep) rejected the request of the Costa Rican Petroleum Refinery (Recope) to set a price for the mixture of ethanol with super gasoline (called ECO95).
In the presentation of its ordinary study, the refiner requested to establish a price of 613 colones per liter for the product.
Recope’s initial intention was to offer ECO95 at the end of May with 8% ethanol in super gasoline. However, in the absence of technical support and test results, the institution and the Presidential House agreed to postpone the incursion of the mixture until 2020.
Nevertheless, setting the price is fundamental in developing a volunteer plan so that between 300 and a thousand cars try ethanol with the aim of obtaining results that dispel doubts in the public opinion.
The regulatory authority determined that the documentation provided by the refiner was insufficient to set a sale and use price in the market.
On the other hand, the Aresep determined that the fuel stolen from the refinery’s poliduct constitutes a non-operational loss and therefore the identified expense can not be transferred to the end users.
In the approach, the refiner sought to recover – via tariffs – about 1,500 million colones that according to the calculations, were lost during 2018 due to the theft of fuels.
The tariff analysis were recognized in the investments made to guarantee the supply of fuel in the port terminal of Moín for an amount close to 47 billion colones and a storage tank for jet fuel gasoline (fuel for aircraft) for an amount close to 1,500 million colones.
On the Value Added Tax (VAT), Aresep explained that the cost projections were included in the tariff estimates. But the final prices will not contain them yet.