Fuel prices still high – Prime Minister says GOB may keep absorbing increased costs

Published by BBNTEAM at March 12, 2023

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Posted: Sunday, March 12, 2023. 9:08 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: It was done quietly, but as we reported on Friday thе рrісе реr gаllоn оf prеmіum fuеl wеnt uр bу 17 сеntѕ frоm $13.95 tо $14.12. Меаnwhіlе, thе рrісе реr gаllоn оf dіеѕеl fuеl wеnt dоwn bу 78 сеntѕ frоm $13.10 tо $12.32.

The Government has been criticized for maintaining for the most part and barely easing down fuel prices in order to recover lost tax revenue, but Prime Minister and Minister of Finance John Briceño made a point of noting in his Budget Speech that rather than increase taxes, the Government forwent the equivalent of $100,000 per day, $3 million per month and more than $30 million in total of fuel taxes to moderate increases in the pump price of fuel caused by the worldwide crunch as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February.

And the Prime Minister told reporters on Friday that short of a fall in international oil prices, it will be more of the same this year: “Well, we are hoping that the price of fuel would go down. As I mentioned so far we have cut fuel taxes by over 30 million dollars and it hurts, because it’s so much we can do with that, but at the same time we fully understand and appreciate that people are hurting, that the price of fuel is way too high for everybody, but we can only deal with the acquisition cost and at the same time try to find a balancing act to ensure that we cannot write off too much taxes, but at the same time trying to have some sort of a ceiling where we would want fuel to go above and if this year we have to continue with the cutting the tax on fuel, we have no other choice.”

At the same time, the P.M. said Government would look at means of subsidizing fuel for such industries as bus operators to avoid more price hikes, as those subsidies ran out at the end of December. Operators are being told to invest more in modernizing their fleets but have complained that it is not as easy as it looks.

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