Mia’s ease at the pump

by MARIA BRADSHAW mariabradshaw@nationnews.com

FOR THE NEXT FIVE MONTHS, Barbadians will pay a standard rate for gasoline and diesel at the pump as Government will be capping the price from Friday.

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced this yesterday evening at a press conference at Ilaro Court as she conceded Government had to go further to shield Barbadians from the rising oil prices, other than the cap on value added tax (VAT), which was instituted from March.

Come Friday, the price of gasoline will be capped at $4.48 per litre and diesel at $4.08 until January 31, 2023.

Mottley however noted that should the price of gasoline decrease, adjustments would be made.

The move comes after the WEEKEND NATION reported on August 5 that Barbados had the fourth highest gasoline price in the world after it was increased by a whopping 31 cents. It then jumped to third place last week following the most recent increase.

That increase also led to an outcry from public service vehicle (PSV) operators, who lamented that many would have to park their vehicles as operating with the price of petrol was not sustainable.

Mottley said she arrived at the decision after she, Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw, who is also Minister of Transport and Works, and Minister of Energy Kerrie Symmonds met with the PSV associations yesterday morning.

“After listening carefully to them and after taking other considerations into place with respect to the volatility of pricing and the spiking that is taking place, we made a determination that we need to create an area of predictability that would allow people to plan out their affairs. That we would place a cap not just on the VAT that we would receive linked to the US$80 a barrel, but we would now place a cap on the price of gasoline and the price of diesel at the pump, and that we would hold to

Continued on Page 4.

that higher price until the 31st of January,” she said.

“If the prices fall below that cap, all of those reductions would be passed through to the consumer. If the prices go above that cap the Government will hold the line and keep the cap in place. But recognise that periodically we would then have to make whole the Barbados National Oil Company, who obviously are buying the product from others since they do not produce it, but we believe that we would manage that process better two to three times a year.”

While the Prime Minister was not able to say how much revenue loss Government was incurring with the cap, she said this month alone it would equate to about $3 million.

She explained that while the cap on VAT had made a difference of 25 cents on diesel and 22 cents per litre on gasoline, “Barbadians needed to be shielded some more”, adding that the new cap on prices would afford some “predictability”.

“The truth of it is, however, that the cap in and of itself is not necessarily proven to be enough, and while things are difficult for the Government, we feel that we have an obligation to shield Barbadians more. We’ve looked around at the prices, we’ve looked around at what we can do and we have made a determination as a Government, those whose living depends on it, whether you are public service vehicle operators, taxi operators, we are going to cap that price at the pump so as to give you that predictability.”

She stressed Government would not cap at the $4.83 per litre, which came into place two weeks ago.

“There has been a decline in prices so that we are not capping at the highest possible price. The truth is that the $4.83 that we are paying now for gasoline is a far higher price than what is currently available.

“To that extent, we would absorb also on that because those prices were to remain based until the end of January. Since then, there was a shipment that came in lesser and we believe that we need to cap at it at the lesser . . . .”

The Prime Minister promised Barbadians that Government would continue to “protect and shield” them as much as possible.