|
|
|
|
|
|||
business & economyAlso in this section: Important changes in crude oil and by-products policy by Deloitte Touche Last April 13, our Executive Council reformed Cabinet Decree 36 / 2003, concerning Panama’s crude oil and by-products policy. These changes are intended to promote an expansion in the crude oil and by-products market that will translate to lower prices in gas and related items. The following are the most relevant changes: 1. The Crude Oil and By-Products Office is empowered with these new faculties: a. To denounce before the Consumer’s Affairs Office, irregular conducts in the crude oil and by-products market. b. To recommend before the executive power the mechanism to determine the profit margins and selling price of gas and related items. c. To be mediate and guarantee the storage availability in installations within the Petroleum Free Trade Zones. 2. The following is added and / or changed from the requirements to request a permit to operate on a Petroleum Free Trade Zone. a. The presentation of a compromise to finance 50% of the project issued by a financial institution has been eliminated. b. Gas and Crude Oil By-Products Importers – distributors for sales in the domestic market are now exempted from some prevention and security requirements. 3. The decree makes it an obligation for companies located in Petroleum Free Trade Zones to operate at their maximum capacity. 4. Permits and Extensions a. Permits to operate within a Petroleum Free Trade Zone will now be extended for 5 year periods with the exception of Type B permits which remain having extensions on an annual basis. b. A 45 day deadline is given for the Crude Oil and By-Products Office to grant permits to operate or extensions to these permits. 5. Companies operating on a Petroleum Free Trade Zone will now have to maintain strategic reserves equivalent to 7-day sales, as opposed to the previous 10-day sales period. 6. The “precio de paridad” or benchmark price for Gas and related items is now considered a “suggested price” as opposed to the previous text considering it a “maximum price”. 7. The Crude Oil and By-Products Office can not determine the “precio de paridad”or benchmark price for Gas and Related Products on a weekly basis, as opposed to the previous biweekly basis. This could be done without a petition of the companies operating on the Petroleum Free Trade Zones. 8. The executive branch can now, through the Crude Oil and By-Products Office, import all crude oil by-products to supply the local market in cases of national emergency, under the following two conditions: a. When the strategic reserve of the country is affected, and b. When the strategic reserve of the country is at risk. Previously the decree required for both conditions to be met for the executive to import crude oil. Finally, no tax incentive was affected by the changes.
Also in this section:
News |
Business |
Editorial |
Opinion |
Letters |
Arts
|
Review |
Community |
Fun
|
Travel |
|||||||||
|
