Today's protest gave the media an opportunity to ask the Opposition Leader about the Prime Minister's promise that by mid-month, fuel prices will go down.
He told us that won't believe it until he sees it:
Hon. John Briceno - Leader of the Opposition
"He makes many promises. He says something and he does something else. I will judge him when he takes corrective action. If he was serious about, with this shipment right now, he could have reduced the tax but he has refused to reduce the tax. He says that the prime acquisition cost is going to go down, fine, it might go down 5 cents, it might go down 10 cents, it might go down 50 cents but that is simply not enough. He needs to reduce the tax by at least $2 so that we can keep the price of fuel under $10. At the very least that is what he needs to do. But I will not believe him until I see that he has taken corrective action. This is unsustainable; this is unacceptable because the burden that he is putting on the Belizean people is just way too much. We are at a breaking point and he needs to act and he needs to act as soon as possible."
And his stance on fuel has also opened the door for his critics to try and make the point that he and his family have been reaping the benefits of these high prices. His family owns the chain of One Stop gas stations between Belize and Orange Walk, and like all gas stations, they operate on a percentage. So, just like government, the higher the price, the greater the cut for the gas station owners. The press put that to Briceno today, and here's how he answered it:
Hon. John Briceno
"The price is set by the government, the pump price. And so we have to follow the law and we sell by the pump price. We have a margin but if the price goes up our margin does not increase. It is the tax that is going up. It is because the Prime Minister needs to have that 42% or over $5 per gallon on fuel. Why is it that the price of fuel continues to go up? Because the price of fuel continues to go up does not mean that the service station dealers are going to make more money. Actually, they make less because they end up selling less fuel because people can afford less to buy fuel. So, it is an asinine, it is a stupid argument that members of the UDP are trying to make to, again, attempt to try and divert attention from the real problem. The government is overtaxing the Belizean people on fuel."
Briceno and our other interviewees make the point that higher fuel prices drive up the cost production for the agricultural sector, which decreases the outputs and the profit margins that the commercial and small farmers get.
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