 Lawmaker criticizes gas price increase.

A Mexican lawmaker criticized the federal government decision to increase gas prices all over the country.

Senator Víctor Hermosillo, a Mexicali member of the National Action Party, said the measure announced by Mexico’s Secretary of Revenue is a deficient and abusive policy against taxpayers.

He recalled that in August he introduced a resolution questioning the decision to increase the cost of gasoline and requested a decrease in gasoline taxes by half.

He admitted gasoline taxes have become one of the main revenue streams for the federal government.

During the first half of this year, the Mexican government received 143.6 billion pesos or $7.1 billion in gas taxes, an increase of 22.3 percent compared to the same period in 2015.

The gas price increase has arrived to Mexico late, he said, given that while international oil prices was low the Mexican government decided to squeeze families by keeping prices high.

Hermosillo, a former Mexicali Mayor, said the increase of the dollar rate exchange led to the gasoline price increase due to the fact that half of the fuel expended in Mexico is imported.

The senator said the Mexican government has turned into an abusive predator of families’ economy with a badly implemented tax reform that has benefited only the government by extracting funds from taxpayers’ wallets.

The lawmaker invited the Mexican government to become more efficient and decrease its expenditures in infrastructure, staff, advertising and social programs — known in America as safety net — that instead of decreasing poverty has maintained it.