After several days of uncertainty, some service stations on the island have already started to collect the advances corresponding to the subsidy of 20 cents per liter approved by the Central Government.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, gas stations such as the BP in Arrecife, the A800-02 in Mácher or the Disa Taxistas in Maneje have received the advance promised through a transfer.
This is a subsidy that aims to alleviate the constant increases in fuel prices for the consumer, but it has also caused major computer management and even subsistence problems in some establishments throughout the country.
Small gas stations have been the most affected by this measure, as they often do not have enough liquidity to advance the money, so some even chose to close. In the case of Lanzarote, the Hermanos de León Cabrera gas station in Haría closed its pumps last Friday the 1st with the entry into force of the discount, keeping only the supermarket open.
On the other hand, Manuel Guillén, president of the taxi drivers' cooperative that manages the Maneje gas station, maintains that this discount has been “a headache”, since they did not have the necessary technology to reflect the discounts on the purchase ticket from one day to the next, nor the means to manage customer vouchers.
In addition, he adds the problem of the amounts of the amount received, which may not cover all the expenses that gas stations are assuming today, since the Ministry bases its refunds on data collected in 2021. Data that does not resemble those of 2022 in all gas stations.
“We are going to need two people to manage the tickets, which translates into an extra economic expense,” says Guillén. “The easiest thing, both for users and service stations, would be to limit the price of gasoline,” he defends.