Last week, the government announced that it was going to allow vehicles to be sold in the country in US dollars. Today, the president of the Confederacion Venezolana de Industriales [CONINDUSTRIA], Eduardo Garmendia, said that US dollars would also be used to buy repair parts, and that the SIMADI exchange rate would be used.
The logic behind allowing Venezuelans to purchase vehicles and spare parts in US dollars has to do with the government’s inability to pay car manufacturers and importers. Without dollars, manufacturers and importers are unable to pay their foreign suppliers, therefore causing all kinds of delays and shortages.
Now, anyone wishing to buy a car or a repair part will pay in US dollars, which will allow the manufacturers and importers to pay their international providers more effectively. Consumers will pay dealerships in dollars, which will allow for dealerships to manufacturers and manufacturers to play their foreign parts suppliers.
The SIMADI rate is the third tier of Venezuela’s currency exchange system. The rate is free-floating, and currently sits at Bs. 198.81 per dollar.
Garmendia explained:
Everything will happen through the SIMADI rate, even the payment of tariffs. The operations [in Venezuela] will be in Bolivares, but the [repair] pieces and other raw materials will be handled in dollars.
While Garmendia does not expect the measure to have a drastic effect on car sales in the country, he said that given the dire situation the industry finds itself in, no reasonable plan should be turned down.
Thousands Report Problems Accessing Money Abroad
The president of the Alianza Nacional de Usuarios y Consumidores [National Alliance of Users and Consumers] (ANAUCO), Roberto Parilli, said today that his organization had received 15,000 complains from Venezuelans abroad since the start of the year. The reasons vary, although Parilli said that they all had something to do with airplane travel outside the country.
Parilli explained that thousands of complaints alone came from travellers who were unable to buy plane tickets to leave the country as they were being sold exclusively in US dollars. El Naional reports that earlier this year, many foreign air carriers began to sell tickets in dollars due to the fact that the Venezuelan government owes them $4 billion from sales in Bolivares going back to 2013.
Parilli also said that many of the complaints had to do with confusion over the new dollar limits for travellers introduced earlier this year. The limits set a maximum amount of dollars Venezuelans can exchange at the official rate when travelling abroad, and the new limits are considerably lower than the older ones.
DolarToday reported today that a group of more than 50 Venezuelans are currently stranded in Ecuador, as the government body responsible for handling currency exchange – CENCOEX – denied them access to the dollars they need to buy return tickets to Venezuela. While the situation is unclear at the time, it appears as if the stranded Venezuelans are unable to access dollars they believe that have access to through their credit cards.
For Parilli, the solution to the problem will not be an easy one:
The solution is to change the economy (…) to return to the free market, private participation, [and to] respect the principles of economic freedom.
Ledezma’s Preliminary Hearing Delayed
Antonio Ledezma’s preliminary hearing was delayed until June 9 today by a judge in Caracas. The judge cited the need for Ledezma to fully recover from a recent surgery.
The decision was announced by Elenis Rodriguez, a lawyer for Lorent Saleh and Gabriel Valles, co-accused in the Ledezma case. The two youths have been in custody for longer than Ledezma has, and Rodriguez said that this is the eighth time the pair have had their preliminary hearing delayed.
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