Maduro rations food

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP):

President Nicolas Maduro said Saturday that he has put a halt to a plan to restrict sales of 20 basic food products in Venezuela's most populous state, a scheme critics had deemed rationing in disguise.

Officials in western Zulia state had said the plan to limit sales of items such as cooking oil, flour, chicken and toilet paper - all of which are subject to price controls - could begin as early as today at 65 supermarkets. But they never explained exactly how it would work.

Data on purchases would reside on computer servers to guarantee that individuals did not make multiple purchases of the same item in different supermarkets, they said.

"It's insane this idea, whoever got into their head, of a computer chip for purchases," Maduro said in a speech televised on state TV.

Scrapping the plan

Maduro said he asked Governor Francisco Arias Cardenas, a socialist ally and former military officer, to scrap the planned restrictions on food sales and Arias agreed.

Many considered the plan tantamount to introducing rationing, but officials in Zulia insisted it wasn't rationing but rather an anti-contraband effort because the goods are more expensive in neighbouring Colombia.

Arias told reporters Saturday that "we will continue with our plans against contraband" without specifying how.

Venezuela is plagued by worsening shortages of basic food and medicine and annual inflation that last month topped 35 percent, reaching the highest monthly rate in 17 years.

It's a predicament many economists blame on currency and price controls coupled with a growing shortage in foreign currency due to falling oil exports and major government spending on social programmes last year during the late President Hugo Chávez's re-election campaign.

Zulia and the neighbouring state of Tachira have in the past two years instituted restrictions on gasolene sales using windshield stickers that include a computer chip.