The price of regular gasoline has gone up nearly 40% in the past six weeks, and while that is a shocker in itself, our newspaper found it strange that when we visited the pumps today, the price of a gallon of premium gasoline had eased by a single penny, and that regular gasoline was actually more expensive — $7.80 a gallon of regular gasoline versus $7.65 for a gallon of premium (super).
Since April 1, pump prices have included an additional $1.00 flat tax, but the prices have continued to escalate, government says, because of increasing acquisition costs.
When we took up the issue of increased pump prices with Prime Minister Dean Barrow at his quarterly press conference in late April, he projected that with the next shipment of fuel coming to Belize, pump prices would likely fall.
However, when new prices took effect on Monday, this did not happen, and the price of regular gas increased instead.
Our newspaper found out that regular gas was up by 30 cents on the gallon, while premium gas had a very nominal and negligible downward shift of one cent, and the price of diesel remained unchanged.
While consumers had been expecting an increase of only $1.00 a gallon at the pumps in April, the increase was much more.
The price of a gallon of regular has increased from $5.66 when the new gas tax was implemented, rising over the recent weeks to $6.99, then to $7.30 and now to $7.80.
While there was no press release from the Government on the latest changes in pump prices, the government did sound the trumpet on Tuesday that the price of butane had gone down by three dollars for the 100-pound cylinder.
Today’s prices are $90 in Belize City and Corozal, $91 in Orange Walk, $92 in Belmopan and San Ignacio, $93 in Benque, $94 in Dangriga and $95 in Punta Gorda.
“The decrease in price is based on average FOB acquisition cost recently reported by the major importers of domestic butane gas,” Government informs.
Pump prices are lower than a year ago, and substantially lower than the $11.40 tab that poked a hole in the pockets of consumers last July. However, prices are escalating again.
The New York Times reported today that oil prices had pushed past US$60 a gallon, a six-month high, and official price tracking data by the US Energy Information Administration indicates that fuel prices have continued an upward trend after hitting a trough in December/January.
When he introduced the new $1.00 gas tax in his 2009/2010 budget, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dean Barrow, announced that while the tax was being levied to help stop the gap in the new budget, he was committing to undertaking a review of the tax should the prices go significantly beyond $7 for gasoline and $6 for diesel.
In April, he told the media that they [in the government] would have to start putting on their thinking caps when prices go beyond $8.00.
If the current trend holds, and prices continue to escalate in Belize, then it won’t be long before pump prices push past that 8-dollar benchmark.