7 News Belize

Acquisition Price Of Fuel Spikes Sharply; GOB Absorbs the Difference
posted (March 11, 2011)
There's a fuel ship in port - which means the price of gas should be changing at midnight tonight. These days with all the upheaval in the Middle East, "changing" always means "going up." And this increase was going to be killer: as much as one dollar and twenty cents per gallon.

But it's not going to be; consumers are finally getting a break on the cost of gas at the pump - and it's a big break. In today's budget speech the Prime Minister announced that the government will give up a million dollars in revenue so that instead of spiking up - fuel will also be going down just a little. Now, it's just a one off measure - but for right now that's good enough:

Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize
"There is a shipment of fuel due to day and the pump prices were to increase by about $1.20 a gallon for gasoline and $1.00 for kerosene and diesel. What government will do is as I indicated remove the GST, but for this shipment alone we will not impose the substitute import duty. We will therefore make a huge revenue sacrifice. The current price per gallon is $10.50 for premium, $10.19 for regular, $8.36 for kerosene and $9.85 for diesel. With the GST those prices would go up to tomorrow to $11.69 for premium, $11.39 for regular, $9.43 for kerosene and $10.81 for diesel. What will happen to the shipment coming in tonight - the price will go down to $10.39 for premium, $10.13 for regular, $8.36 for kerosene and $9.61 for diesel. But I have to caution Mr. Speaker that this is a onetime only gesture. When the next shipment after this arrives around the end of March it will have to be subject to the new import duty in lieu of GST. And recall that while that new regime will offer some relief by way of duties lower than the GST we will not any longer be able to avoid some massive increases due to the spiraling international price that we can't control."

So while the customary advice we give is to buy gas now before the price goes up tomorrow; in this case the advice is to wait until tomorrow to buy because the price will be going down fractionally.

The tax break on gas was given within the wider context of an overall adjustment on the tax regime governing fuel imports - which the Prime Minister explained in his budget speech.

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