51 ruled that the new tax was also invalid, citing procedural errors and depriving FEPC of this source of financing ( _Portafolio_ 2015b).

The fund with a large deficit notwithstanding, retail prices of gasoline and diesel in Colombia have not been low, in part because of taxes and surcharges (which are higher for gasoline than for diesel). In June 2014, for example, the surveyed retail prices of diesel and gasoline (with a minimum octane index of 87, called Gasolina Extra) in Bogotá averaged US$1.16 and US$1.50 per liter, respectively (SIPG 2015). The gasoline price was considerably higher than the U.S. average retail price of US$0.98 per liter in the same month, and the diesel price in Colombia was also higher than the U.S. average of US$1.03 per liter (U.S. EIA 2015).

Petroleum products are among the heavily trafficked smuggled goods from República Bolivariana de Venezuela. In June 2015, the Colombian parliament passed a law tightening penalties for smuggling.

# **Côte d’Ivoire**

Fuel prices are subject to ceilings, uniform throughout the country for gasoline, kerosene, and diesel. LPG prices were frozen between 2008 and January 2013, and the gasoline price between April 2010 and January 2013. The price of diesel was frozen longer, fixed at CFAF 615 (US$1.16) per liter until December 2014, when the price was lowered to CFAF 600 (US$1.13) per liter.

The government began applying an automatic price adjustment mechanism to gasoline in April 2013. Prices are adjusted only when changes in international prices exceed specified thresholds, with some discretionary powers exercised by the government. Price smoothing is achieved by adjusting the taxable portion of the price on which tax rates are applied. For revenue protection, there is a floor to the tax base. Gasoline cross‐subsidizes diesel when the price of diesel reaches CFAF 615. Prices of gasoline and diesel were lowered in December 2014, January 2015, and February 2015, but raised in March and April 2015, when the price of diesel again reached CFAF 615 per liter. After five months of no price adjustments, the prices were lowered in succession: in September 2015 to CFAF 680 (US$1.16) per liter of gasoline and CFAF 580 (US$0.99) per liter of diesel, in October 2015 to CFAF 650 (US$1.11) and CFAF 570 (US$0.97), respectively, and in November 2015 to CFAF 630 (US$1.03) per liter of gasoline while the price of diesel remained unchanged at CFAF 570 per liter.

The power sector uses natural gas and heavy vacuum oil. Low rainfalls in recent years have reduced the availability of low‐cost electricity in the form of hydropower, and increased the need for a more expensive form of power generation from heavy vacuum oil. This has led to mounting debts. Some of the gas (gas from domestic gas fields corresponding to the government’s 15‐percent equity share) and heavy vacuum oil provided by the local refinery used in power generation is provided free of charge to the power utility. Free gas is estimated to have amounted to 0.9 percent of GDP in 2011. Delays in reimbursement for heavy vacuum oil by the government aggravates the already poor financial situation of the local state‐owned refinery. Both the refinery and Petroci, state‐owned oil company (which supplies natural gas to the domestic market), made large losses in 2014, and Petroci was unable to pay its taxes and 2013 dividends. The government is focusing on investing CFAF 5.3 trillion (US$9 billion) to revamp and expand the power infrastructure, which will eliminate the need for heavy vacuum oil, while committing to settle arrears and timely reimbursement of fuel subsidies (IMF 2012b, 2014a, 2014f, 2014l, 2015h).