The Government of Panama approved in a dialogue table with representatives of the passenger transport sector a temporary fuel subsidy and thus review certain incentives to lower the cost of tires and motor oil, among others, avoiding a strike announced for this Monday.

“The strike has already been suspended because we have reached these agreements that were achieved in good faith,” Abel Ovando, president of the National Chamber of Transportation (Canatra), told reporters.

The “national strike” of transport had been called by Canatra and other public transport unions due to the rise in fuel prices, which makes the business unviable because rates have remained the same for more than a decade, they argued.

The approval of a “substitute rent” for the public passenger transport sector then allows users not to increase their fares, “which was what we were looking for,” said the union leader.

The Vice Minister of Commerce, Omar Montilla, said for his part that the subsidy will come from the budget of Mi Bus, the Metro’s public complementary transport system, and that it will be in effect “until December 31, a sacrifice that the Government will make. , so that they (the drivers) can have a reduction in the price of fuel. “

According to local press reports, the total amount of the subsidy until next December amounts to 3 million dollars.

The cost of fuel is adjusted every two weeks in Panama, a net importer, and for a while it has only risen, now trading at $ 0.99 the price of 95 octane gasoline; at 0.97 dollars for 91 octane and 0.87 for diesel in the provinces of Panama and Colón. In the rest of the country, prices are higher.

On October 27, the public transport service was paralyzed in 5 of the 10 provinces of Panama, without affecting the capital, in protest of the fuel increase that included the closure of some roads, which left thousands of people stranded. users and produced heavy traffic jams in the interior of the country.