Buenos Aires, March 25 (NA) – As the price of a barrel of Brent oil jumped due to the Middle East conflict and exceeded USD 100, gasoline prices in Argentina felt the impact, reaching $ 2,000. This accumulated an adjustment of 19% this month. Fuels, which were already being increased in the country beforehand, consequently added rises above inflation, reaching 63.6% in the last year, almost doubling the growth rate of general economic prices at 33.1%, reported the Argentine News Agency. According to a table prepared by Focus Market, 46.6% of the price paid by the consumer is taxes: 41.5% goes to the Nation, 3% to the provinces and 2.1% to the municipalities. In this structure of recipients of the distribution is the answer to why the increase in the input is applied so automatically and not lowered. A liter of gasoline that costs $ 2,000 is taxed at $365.56 between specific taxes ($18.45) and VAT $ 347.11, so the base value is $ 1,634, 81.72%. Those $ 18.45 per liter are derived between $ 16.53 that goes to the Nation and $ 1.92 to the provinces. They are received by the National Treasury, $ 1.92, ANSES $ 5.29, Hydraulic Infrastructure $ 0.9, FONAVI $ 2.78 and $ 0.47, while the provinces receive $ 1.92 as well, as the Nation. 60% is directed to road bodies for highways and roads. 30% of the allocation to provinces goes to works and energy and 10% to electrical development, according to a breakdown by economist Damián Di Pace. Gasoline and inflation. Faced with such distribution, the recovery practiced last year in the price had a place in the Consumer Price Index, in a context in which the general rate of prices was declining, which neutralized the incidence. This is because in the structure of the IPC, gasoline and diesel have a weight close to 3.8 percent. This implies that for every 10 percent increase at the pumps, the direct impact on inflation is approximately 0.38 percentage points. But the effect of the increase in fuel does not stop there, but it affects the entire logistics chain. It raises transport and distribution costs, which ends up being passed on to the prices of goods and services in general, according to the consultancy EcoGo. YPF explanation. "The price update only reflects the higher refining cost due to the purchase of non-own crude. It is a temporary adjustment, and internationally, one of the lowest: in other countries the increases have been at least three times greater," explained YPF's CEO, Horacio Marín. We act without speculation and without taking advantage of the volatility of crude oil prices in this context of global uncertainty. However, the price dynamic at the pump does not only respond to the international cost of crude, which is affected by both Brent's quotation and the evolution of the exchange rate, but there is another no less important factor, such as the tax burden, particularly the Taxes on Liquid Fuels and Carbon Dioxide, whose update functions as a fiscal policy tool. The specialized medium Surtidores analyzed that, in price terms, the scenarios are diverse. With a partial transfer of the international increase and a limited correction of taxes, the adjustment at the pumps could be around 9 percent, with an incidence close to 0.3 points in inflation. However, if the rise in crude consolidates and a more complete update of the tax burden were advanced, the increases could escalate up to 30 percent, with an impact greater than 1 percentage point on the IPC. The saw of Brent. At the beginning of this conflict, the barrel was around 72 dollars and there were peaks of almost 120 dollars. Today it is around 85 or 86 dollars, this volatility responds to the closure of strategic passages and the world's need for oil, which affects the pumps around the world. The translation of this movement to internal prices is in charge of YPF, which holds 55% of the dispatches, followed by Shell (19%), Axion (14%) and Puma Energy (5%), which will accompany the decisions that the state-owned oil company makes.
