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World oil prices are plummeting, but the pump prices in Belize actually went up with the last fuel shipment. And that's because while the acquisition cost went down, government's tax bite was bigger.

A press release from the Ministry of Finance says it's all about belt-tightening, and making up for revenues lost from the nearly depleted Spanish Lookout Oil Field.

And the effect of that is passed unto you, with pump prices that were more than 10% higher – and all of the increase is tax. Today we took a deep dig into the numbers to see how today's prices compare to previous years when the landed price of fuel was comparable:

Emanuel Pech reporting...

We start first with diesel, which went up by 81 cents on Monday. That is 13% more than the price of the previous fuel shipment which arrived on the 16 ^th. Now for a little bit of clarity, you must keep in mind that the total cost you pay at your local gas station is determined by a few things. Two of the most important factors are the landed cost and the Government's overall tax take. In the case of diesel the pump price is at a flat $7.00 per gallon as of midnight Monday. Out of this, $3.11 will be used to cover landing costs and $2.86 will go into government coffers as tax.

To compare it to other year's, we dug up the Ministry of Finance's old archives to find a period when the landing price was similar and we found this: on February 4^th 2005 when the landing cost was also $3.11, diesel was at a meagre $5.83 per gallon as opposed to current $7 per gallon.

The difference is in Government's tax take. Government gets $1.04 per gallon more today than they did in February of 2005 when the landing price was the same.

When putting Premium and Regular gasoline into this historical comparison, the difference is in the consumer's favour. That's right, today's price is a few cents cheaper than years ago when the landed cost was the same. Today we pay $8.52 cents per gallon of regular gasoline. Landing price is $3.44 and Government's tax bite is $3.85 cents. On November 27^th 2005, when the landing price was at a comparable $3.43 cents, we paid $8.81 per gallon. Government got more in taxes then than they do now.

Today we pay $9.30 per gallon of premium gasoline at the pump. Landed cost is at $3.83 and government's tax bite is at $4.17 cents. The closest comparable landing cost we found in the Ministry of Finance's old archives is the $3.87 landed cost of March 6^th2006. Then, the price for premium gas was at $9.72 and government's tax take was $4.52. Thirty cents more than today's $9.30 at the gas pump and $4.17 of Government tax take.

And while we started working on that story yesterday – the prices was already changing – and thankfully, it was going down. At 12:01 am this morning, Regular gasoline has dropped to $8.30 per gallon- a decrease of 32 cents. The price of premium and diesel remain unchanged.