to increase the budget line items of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes), for the purpose of financing the repair and maintenance of the road and highway network that enables the agricultural and livestock zones of the country, and to allocate one hundred million colones to FERTICA, as a one-time measure, for the fertilizer subsidy. The increase in the line items shall be financed with the savings that accrue in favor of the Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE), by virtue of the new crude oil prices and the new price fixings for fuels and petroleum derivatives, as well as from the savings resulting from the conclusion of the financial commitments that RECOPE currently has.
RECOPE is authorized to sell diesel at cost to the national fishing fleet, whose vessels are duly registered in the Registry of the Department of Fishing and Hunting (Departamento de Pesca y Caza) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería).
The Executive Branch shall set the maximum volume of the sale, which must be related to the total and net incomes of the fishing activity and the fishing volumes of the vessels. The subsidy shall decrease as the fishing situation improves. Likewise, RECOPE is authorized to sell diesel at cost to the international fleet that provisions in Costa Rica or carries out repairs in accordance with the policies determined by the Executive Branch. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, in coordination with RECOPE, shall have a maximum period of thirty business days, counted from the effective date of this law, to regulate the sales authorizations to the national and international fleets.
The National Production Council (Consejo Nacional de Producción) and the Ministry of Finance (Ministerio de Hacienda) shall exercise control over the fuel sold at a preferential price and shall oversee the use of the concessions granted, which may be definitively canceled if they are used for other purposes. The at-cost price of diesel includes the cost of raw materials, process operations, administration and sales, distribution, maintenance, and specific development. This shall be the price of the diesel placed at a RECOPE facility. The transport from the RECOPE facility to the fishing centers shall be at the expense of the fishermen, or shall be charged additionally by RECOPE. Although the price covers the direct costs, it does not include other items or fixed charges, such as debt service, subsidies, taxes, and others; therefore, in order not to overburden the rest of the diesel volume for other activities—which would create an increase in fixed charges on the diesel for other activities, which would create an increase in fixed charges on the diesel sold to other consumers—the additional subsidy for the items not charged to the diesel sold to the fishermen must be taken from the global subsidies currently borne by RECOPE. Thus, the overall amount of subsidies borne by RECOPE shall not increase, which therefore shall not be to the detriment of all other consumers of the fuels that RECOPE sells.