Government must ensure citizens benefit from the drop in oil prices

Oct 20, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I have been following the fuel prices closely and have noticed that oil prices have dropped below $75 per barrel for the first time in the past six months.

I would like to bring to light immediately that when oil prices rose steeply from mid $70 per barrel to $147 per barrel, the oil companies did not hesitate to increase their prices.

Oil prices started a steady decline for over four weeks now and I read the following in the Kaieteur News – “…Prices at the pumps are unlikely to decrease anytime soon given that the current supply of fuel on the markets was purchased at the increased prices and any new supply will incur the new excise tax”.

This brings me to the question: when fuel prices were rising on the world market didn’t the local oil companies purchased fuel at the lower rates and had these in stock to continue to sell to consumers at the old rates? Why are we hearing that we will have to wait until the old stock of fuel has to be exhausted before we can enjoy lower rates?

The Government in the meantime has re-instated and increased the taxes on gasoline and diesel. From my simple calculations, I can tell you that even with the increased taxes fuel prices should be about 40% less at the pumps, i.e. approximately $600 per gallon and not $1000 as it is now.

In light of this very important issue at the moment the representative organisations have been silent, and these include the Private Sector Commission, the Guyana Manufacturers Association, the Trade Unions, the Consumer Association and the Mini-bus Association.

Fuel prices affect the lives of everyone and when fuel prices increase cost of living increase rapidly, so I am appealing to the relevant authorities and the Government to urgently address this matter.

Guyanese deserve better treatment than this and we need a Government to look after the rights of the ordinary people of this country for it is they who are feeling it the most with these costs increase. We already have to deal with 33% income tax plus 16% VAT on our daily income.

R. Dubraj

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Government must ensure citizens benefit from the drop in oil prices

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