Blog

but consumers complain that fuel price still not reflective of latest gov’t reduction of excise tax
OWING to the further reduction of excise tax on fuel, the prices for gasoline at the state-owned Guyana Oil Company (Guyoil) stations remain below the $1000 mark while the price for the commodity has surpassed this amount at the Shell and Texaco Service Stations.

The government has recently announced a further reduction to 10 percent of the already softened Excise Tax on fuel in an attempt to cushion the effects of the high world market oil prices. As a result of this, the price for gasoline at Guyoil is $215.6 per litre – ($970.2 per gallon).

A check at other stations revealed that gasoline is being sold at Shell Stations at $229.5 per litre – ($1,032 per gallon) while at Texaco consumers are being asked to pay $229.9 per litre – ($1,034.55 per gallon)

Prior to the last reduction, there have been previous concessions made to mitigate the impact of escalating fuel prices on domestic consumers with regards to fuel, the impact on goods and services and transportation cost; this included a reduction in the excise tax on diesel from 20 to 15 percent, and a further reduction on the gasoline excise tax by one third, from 30 percent to 20 percent earlier this year.
Despite the most recent decrease, however, consumers are complaining that the price for gas at Guyoil pumps has not been affected by the additional reduction since they are still paying the previous price of $970.2 per gallon.
When asked to pronounce on the reason for this, one official at the Guyoil head office explained that this was because of the fact that stations would need to sell previously purchased stock and pointed out that when this supply has depleted then a further price reduction would be evident.
In addition to this, there have been reports of shortages at several Service Stations who use Guyoil as their fuel supplier.
The proprietors of some of these stations have noted with concern that they have been receiving an inconsistent supply of fuel from the state-owned Oil Company for some time now and are calling on the entity to take the necessary steps to regulate this, since this is having a negative impact on their businesses.
Asked whether they were informed of any fuel shortage by the oil company, the proprietor of one Service Station explained to the Guyana Chronicle, via a telephone interview, that there was no knowledge of a shortage but their supply is being affected nevertheless.
He said, “We have not been receiving a regular supply and when we told the company about this at several meetings, they said that the shipment was late but assured us that there was no shortage of gas at this time.”
“We did not have gas in the pumps for a couple of days now but we received some today and all that they told us was that there was a problem with the ship which is what caused the delay,” explained another proprietor.
In response to allegations of a fuel shortage at Guyoil, the official from the company explained that they are not aware of the existence of any shortage in fuel and pointed to the fact that all of the Guyoil retail outlets including their Kitty, Regent Street, Sheriff Street, Providence and Victoria stations, have an adequate supply to offer customers.
Meanwhile, efforts made to contact Guyoil’s Managing Director, Mr. Badrie Persaud, to address these concerns were unsuccessful.

GLOBAL SITUATION
In February 2011, with the crisis in Egypt, oil prices began increasing, while supplies remained high, Saudi Arabia assured an increase in production to counteract shutdowns.
Still, the 2011 Libyan uprising, along with the fear of further protests, led to a rise in oil prices to the highest level in two years, with gasoline prices following.
However, most Libyan oil went to Europe a result of which all oil prices reacted and the average price of gasoline in the United States increased 6 cents to $3.17.
In March of this year, a significant drop in Libyan production and fears of more instability in other countries pushed the price of oil over $100 a barrel in New York trading, while the average price of gas reached US$3.37.

Source: Guyana Chronicle