A News Analysis
BELIZE CITY, Wed. June 3, 2020– The COVID-19 pandemic that led to a global shutdown of travel has had devastating consequences for the oil industry. After a continuously downward spiral on the stock market, oil prices hit historic lows, and on April 20, oil futures crashed to zero, in part because there was no more storage space for the oil that had been preordered for the month of May. Experts are predicting that long after supply and demand for oil balance out, the oil market could see a long contango.
Despite all that has happened in the oil industry over the last few weeks, however, Belizean drivers are still paying high prices for fuel at the gas pump. Recently, government lowered the price of regular gasoline, but the price of that fuel is on the rise again.
Everyone would agree that the pandemic has totally ravaged Belize’s economy, but the government, by keeping the price of fuel high so that it can be a ballast for its depleted revenues, has shown no sympathy for the driving public.
Many motorists waited to see if the Dean Barrow-led administration would have passed on some of the savings to them by way of reduction of prices at the fuel pump. That did not happen with premium gasoline, which remained above the $10.00 per gallon mark.
According to GlobalPetrolPrices.com, the June price of premium gasoline in Belize is BZ $1 more than the average price per liter for this fuel.
“Belize: The price of octane-95 gasoline is 2.88 Belize dollars per liter. [One US gallon is defined as 3.7854 liters.] For comparison, the average price of gasoline in the world for this period is 1.88 Belize dollars,” GlobalPetrolPrices.com noted.
In light of government’s recent announcement of new oil prices, we made an attempt to speak to Financial Secretary Joseph Waight. We wanted to ask Waight if there are any plans for Belizean motorists to benefit from the massive oil glut on the world market presently, but when we called the Ministry of Finance, we were told on more than one occasion that “the Fin Sec is in a meeting, but I will pass on the message, that you called.”
Not being able to speak to Financial Secretary Waight or anyone from the Ministry of Finance, we decided to question the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. John Briceño, who co-chairs the National Oversight Committee along with Prime Minister Dean Barrow.
We asked Hon. Briceno to comment on the fact that after the price of regular gasoline went down recently, it is now rising, and despite the low oil prices on the world market, the price of premium gasoline did not go down in Belize.
“It is obvious that the government is short of money and is trying every which way to get money into their coffers,” Hon. Briceño said.
“The easiest way for them to do that is to tax fuel,” Briceno offered,” But it goes contrary to what the Prime Minister has promised, that as the price of oil goes down, so will the price of fuel.”
Hon. Briceno pointed to when oil futures dropped to zero last month, saying, “Well, we in Belize would not get it for zero, but we should be paying a lot less for fuel than we are now paying.”
“The Prime Minister is dealing with the tax structure and is trying to keep more money in their coffers,” Hon. Briceño added.
Now that the government itself has said that it has no money, Belizeans can’t benefit from the low oil prices on the world market.
Therefore, effective May 30, pump prices changed. The price of regular gasoline jumped by 46 cents, from $7.62 to $8.08 per gallon. Diesel fuel saw a decrease of 61 cents from $7.89 to $7.28 per gallon. The price of premium gasoline was unchanged at $10.92, and the price of kerosene is $5.43 per gallon.
Feature photo: Hon. John Briceño