by Amit Uttamchandani Effective mid-night Sunday (a.k.a, Monday morning), the retail price of gasoline and diesel has changed. Gasoline has moved from $3.25 BDS per litre to $3.28 (an increase of 13 cents or 4%) and diesel has moved from $2.46 BDS per litre to $2.37 (a decrease of 9 cents or 3.7%). Here is…
Effective mid-night Sunday (a.k.a, Monday morning), the retail price of gasoline and diesel has changed. Gasoline has moved from $3.25 BDS per litre to $3.28 (an increase of 13 cents or 4%) and diesel has moved from $2.46 BDS per litre to $2.37 (a decrease of 9 cents or 3.7%).
Here is what retail gasoline and diesel prices looked like in October 2011, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15, ’16 and ’17:
(September 2011 through to September 2017 can be found here.)
Read the full analysis at caribbeansignal.com
More fraud at the pumps,
Best time in the world to capitalise on a good thing, especially when consumers has nobody to turn to for protection.
If there is transparency in how the price at the pump is calculated a lot of the huff and puff will go away. BU has no issue with passing on the economic cost to the consumer.
Government can safely increase the Excise Tax on gasoline and diesel for revenue rather than impose such a steep increase in the NSRL. Bajan motorists will continue wasting fuel no matter the price (like they waste water) – and if the overall effect is some decline in the importation of fuel, the tax increase in fuel will have a foreign exchange saving benefit.
It would be interesting to see a comparison in the composition of the pump prices
“BU has no issue with passing on the economic cost to the consumer.” And the savings? It appears that whenever international barrel prices increase, there is an immediate price adjustment at the pump. However there always seems to be a lag when world prices move in the opposite direction. Matter of fact, I believe that there is a cutoff point below which government will not allow consumers to benefit from low prices. The lag in pricing when barrel prices are low is somehow attributed to stock on hand. When world prices surge, miraculously the storage tanks are empty resulting in an immediate increase.
When a population comes to believe a government could properly run such a mechanism when said regime would sell its own oilfields to Sol the outcomes aredeaerved
Fear Play
Good one. It almost makes you wonder why there is not the same enthusiasm to lower fuel prices when oil prices decrease.
I have always been of the opinion that this administration uses these prices to raise their revenue base.The idea of passing on savings to the consumer does not enter the equation.However I agree with the view that there is a lot of consumer apathy to these prices and wastage is likely.
More domestic terrorism……Govt has always being using fuel as an ATM …..absolutely unimpeded….a look at the graph showing they gas prices have been constantly on average above $ 3.00 mark over the period 2011-2017…..when crude has fluctuated from as high as $120 a barrel to $45 a barrel…..wicked and wufflessness to the extreme
FORWARD CONTRACTS OR PRICE HIKES?
Gasoline prices continue to rise in Barbados
Fuel at the pump continues to rise in Barbados
With the recent unprecedented rate at which oil prices have been falling on the international market, one would believe by now, that the price of gasoline to the Bajan consumer would have gone down. But no-no; don’t forget Bajans were recently placed on a diet of “Blackbird soup” and Wood dove rations by their Minister of Finance, and such levity would derail frugality. As such, the prices being asked for gasoline in Barbados remain around the same as when Brent Crude was listed on the exchange at around $120 per barrel in 2011. Who in their right minds would not believe, that with a decrease of more than 30% in crude oil prices, some semblance of a significant reduction would be passed on to the Bajan consumers?
On the international markets, crude oil price have plummeted to around $83 per barrel. A variety of factors have coalesced into a perfect storm driving oil prices lower and lower: US prices have fallen 25 percent to around $80 a barrel in the past five months – a large drop, given that prices had been floating around $115 dollars a barrel from 2011 onward.
In late October, Goldman Sachs revised its 2015 forecast to predict that oil prices would continue a downward slide. Goldman predicts soft demand and a glut of supply will drive West Texas Intermediate – the North American benchmark – to $70 a barrel in the second quarter of 2015. Global benchmark Brent could dip to $80 that same quarter, according to the report, when oversupply is at its peak.
There have been many outcries by Bajans on social media and the call in programs for gasoline prices and fuel oil prices (hence electricity bills) to go down with the advent of these falling crude oil prices. Minister of Lands Dennis Kelman was first to offer his explanation on the call in program. He said that government has negotiated with Trinidad to purchase gasoline and fuel oil on future contracts (buying on forwards). Since the current supply has not been exhausted, prices of gasoline would remain. This does little to explain Mr. Minister, why Bajans have seen spates when gasoline prices have increased almost every fortnight and the fuel adjustment rate on their light bills escalated unexpectedly. Are we to believe then Mr. Minister whenever we see a price hike in gasoline, it is as a result of drawing down a new negotiated shipment from Trinidad?
The obvious question then that follows Mr. Minister, since we have these negotiated forward contracts, why is John Public and \or businessmen not privy to such scheduled pricing? With such information in hand, they can ‘forward plan’ and\or reschedule thereby reducing business cost?
As one caller to the call-in program most unctuously put it, “to us it seems as if increasing\decreasing gasoline and fuel oil pricing is being done ‘willy nilly’. “It seems as if when government has a shortfall for cash in one area, it increases gasoline and fuel oil prices to compensate.”
……From an earlier extract…..TODAY NO CHANGE….QED
Both governments have used obscure tactics to raise revenue. One recalls the cultural levy rolled out by Arthur? Then there were all those off balancesheet items.
The high cost of fuel at the pump is often reported to be a combination of the level of excise tax, freight cost etc. As mention there is a fog that has enveloped how the price point is arrived at the pump.
Interesting link, Barbados is confirmed as one of the countries with the highest price for fuel at the pump.
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