CARACAS (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro said he would use newly granted powers to decree two laws today to cap retailers’ profits and reorganize the distribution of foreign currency in Venezuela’s troubled economy.
Parliament passed an Enabling Law this week allowing Maduro to emulate his predecessor, the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, and rule by decree for one year.
“The oligarchy has reacted with desperation, I call for our offensive to continue without falling for bourgeois provocations,” the president said in a series of Tweets yesterday, referring to opposition outrage at the measure.
Maduro said he would use the special powers to pass one law intended to limit businesses’ profits to 15-30 per cent, and another creating a central body to oversee allocations of dollars at the official rate of 6.3 bolivars.
Earlier this month, Maduro declared an “economic offensive” against local business executives whom he accuses of inflating prices of imported products exorbitantly – some more than 1,000 per cent – despite being given US dollars at the official exchange rate.
