Caracas, Aug 05. AVN.- Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Rafael Ramirez, said on Tuesday that through the restoration of full sovereignty over the management of the resources generated by oil activities in the country, including taxes, levies and royalties were gained 510 billion dollars since 2003.

"Actions to restore fiscal oil revenues have it enabled capture in this period an income from oil revenue of 510 billion dollars, which otherwise would have left the country in the hands of transnational" he said during his speech at the special session of parliament makes the commemoration of 100 years of the inception of the oil exploitation with the entry into operation of Zumaque 1, located in Mene Grande, State of Zulia.

He said that for this purpose the Government, under the leadership of Hugo Chavez undertook several strategic lines of action and exercise of sovereignty. These include restoring fiscal revenue from oil and the oil price appreciation in pursuit of economic development.

Ramirez explained that to achieve that prompted the revaluation Venezuela within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) a correct policy of production quotas, which drove the price of oil from $ 10 a barrel to an average of $ 100 a barrel.

The second line of action was the initiation of a process to restore the minimum royalty rate from the sell levels of 1%, which paid the transnational oil opening levels of 33.33%, which today pay all oil operators in the country, he said.

He said the government also undertook the modification of the Law on Income Tax of 2006, which made it possible to readjust and reorganize the collection of royalties and taxes from the oil and gas sector, applying a rate of 50% for all oil operators.

The 1990s was characterized by the traitorous regime of so-called "oil opening". Most of the revenue generated by the oil industry were leaving the country. Today these resources are directed to social programs for the welfare of the people of Venezuela: pensions, health, education, sport and culture.

"It's a revolutionary politics (the distribution of oil revenues) that should be a tool for the construction of a new economic order, should be a tool for the construction of socialism," said Ramirez.