The head of Venezuela's leading private commercial association said on Thursday the country's year-old currency controls were denying local importers hard currency and unfairly favouring transnational companies.
In comments sharply contradicting the government's upbeat assessment of the controls, Jorge Botti said most private importers had been unable to obtain from the state currency board Cadivi the hard currency they needed for their business.
"Only 20 percent of businesses that import were able to get access to Cadivi, and of those, only 20 percent received what they wanted," Botti, who heads the Consecomercio association representing the trade and services sector, told a news conference.
Battered by a gruelling opposition strike a year ago, the government of left-wing President Hugo Chavez clamped the forex controls on Venezuela's oil-exporting economy to shore up the local bolivar currency and stem capital flight.
Private business leaders say the curbs, which require companies to formally apply for dollars from Cadivi at a fixed rate of 1,600 bolivars to the dollar, have throttled economic activity and helped push the country into recession. But Cadivi insists the controls are a success and that enough hard currency is being channelled to businesses.
Critics say the controls are fuelling a booming currency black market where the dollar trades at more than 3,000 bolivars.
The government argues the measure has swelled Venezuela's foreign reserves to more than $22 billion, improving the country's international credit rating.
Botti said Cadivi's allocation of dollars at the fixed rate of 1,600 bolivars to transnational companies in Venezuela, for them to pay dividends to their shareholders abroad, gave these firms an unfair advantage over local companies.