Saturday, 11 September 2021 15:56

ASTIC to hold work stoppage due to the use of Bitcoin in the country

Written by Evelyn Alas

The Asociación Salvadoreña de Transporte de Carga (ASTIC), will hold a work stoppage if article 7 is not modified so as not to be affected in their transportation service payments and that the sector is excluded from the use of Bitcoin and the application.

The institution if the law is not repealed, if Article 7 is not modified and if they do not exclude the sector from such article, they will take the following measures:

  • They will carry out work stoppage.
  • They will charge commission for the use of bitcoin.

The leader of ASTIC, Raúl Alfaro, indicated that "we are an essential service, of the whole region ...bitcoin is exclusive in El Salvador, but our main source of income is the payment for the FLETE, that is to say the service we offer to our clients".

During the pandemic the President of ASTIC asked for the carriers to be vaccinated so that they could continue working and they were only allowed to continue working but were not vaccinated.

On september 29th all the representatives of the union will meet to discuss the bitcoin issue. ASTIC said that the use of the cryptocurrency and the application is presented as an obligation in Article 7 of the Bitcoin Law.

In addition, the ASTIC representative indicated that they have warned their clients, that no carrier in Central America will receive bitcoins as a form of payment for the transfer of products in their transports.

He also expressed that "no one sets up a business not to earn, a nun of charity. I do understand that in the future we are going to trade with virtual currency, but an environment exclusive to El Salvador is not very clear to me", says Raúl Alfaro, President of ASTIC.

The leader of the union said that the Minister of the Viceministerio de Transporte (VMT), Saul Castelar, has not heeded his call regarding the request for insurance for international cargo transport with regional coverage.