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World oil prices are depressed, but government has not relieved Belizeans from high fuel prices

GeneralWorld oil prices are depressed, but government has not relieved Belizeans from high fuel prices

A news analysis
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Apr. 16, 2020– Belizeans have so far not benefited from the crash of oil prices on the world market.

At a time of global crisis, the Government of Prime Minister Dean Barrow has demonstrated that it appears to care more about collecting its taxes than providing some measures of relief for Belizeans.

Given the reality of what is happening in the world with the COVID-19 pandemic and how that has affected the world consumption of oil, which industry experts are saying had fallen by more than 10 million barrels per day due to the global lockdown, the Belize government has not seen it fit to pass on the savings to consumers.

Recently, the government had a big fight with the Central American companies which import Liquid Petroleum Gas (butane) into the country, because they had proposed to lower the price of their fuel. The government went ahead and passed a Statutory Instrument which essentially was a price control mechanism.

Somehow, the government has been unable to see that by lowering the price of fuel, it could help citizens and, by extension, the economy, which is under severe stress from the pandemic.

While many thousands of Belizeans have lost their jobs, especially in the tourism and hospitality industries, which literally crashed due to the global crisis, the government has not begun to explore creative ways to show more compassion for its affected citizens.

Evidence of this can be gleaned from the snail’s pace at which the government’s COVID-19 assistance program is moving.

Out of the more than 62,000 persons who applied for unemployment funds, only a little over 20,000 have been approved for $75 per week assistance for the next 3 months.

On Tuesday, the price of oil on the world market fell to its lowest levels in decades when a barrel of crude oil was trading on the US mercantile exchange for US $19.87.

Why is it that the government cannot forego some of the hefty taxes it collects from fuel and pass on this savings to the people?

Since the new budget for the fiscal year has been passed, why has the government been unable to make some kind of adjustment to help the country during the present crisis, especially since many adjustments will have to take place in order for Belize to recover in the post-pandemic world?

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