Dear Editor,
The Government’s refusal to reduce the price of fuel to consumers and businesses is just another example of how repressed Guyanese are and how repressive the current PPP/C regime is.
All over the world consumers are happy about the collapse in oil prices on the international market from US$100 a few months ago to under US$45 a barrel. They enjoy lower fuel prices at the pump, lower electricity prices, with higher disposable income and more competitive businesses.
In the USA the prices of gasoline and diesel are under US$2 a gallon compared to US$5 in Guyana.? American consumers have saved more than US$100B since the collapse in oil prices. Even the small island of St Vincent has reduced prices every month and this is the same in all other countries in the region.
The citizens of these countries are happy because they voted for responsible, accountable? and transparent Governments who always act in the supreme interest of their electorates.
In Guyana this is not so. Since the decline in prices, the Government has hiked the excise tax on fuel. Even with the hike in taxes, the fall in prices to below US$45 a barrel should result in prices more than 30% lower than what we are currently paying. Where are the super profits going?
The last few months has seen the biggest transfer of income from poor Guyanese to the Government and the fuel distribution sector in Guyana. It is a shame that the poorest people in the world are required to pay the highest fuel prices in the world. This act of repression has no parallel.
Is it the continuing policy of the PPP/C administration to deliberately keep Guyanese poor while they misuse our resources on adventurous projects which only benefit their friends and inner circle?
While the Government overtaxed ordinary Guyanese their friends are given more than generous tax breaks, duty-free fuel, tax holidays and all sorts of concessions. Foreign logging companies are given duty-free fuel to rape our forest, the Marriott Hotel has been given a 10- year tax holiday, no withholding tax, no property tax, no duty on consumables. Where is the justification?
Rice millers, rice farmers, miners and all Guyanese businesses have been asking for more competitive electricity rates and lower taxes on fuel for years without any consideration whatsoever.
The matter of fuel prices is so fundamental since it affects every cost in the national economy on which our businesses have to compete with on the international market. Yet the Private Sector Commission (PSC) remains silent on this matter. The PSC have habitually been very vocal on matters of interest to the governing elite but when it comes to the interests of their own members they seem to have gone on vacation with no Internet access. It is very clear whose interest this group serves? and why they do not command the respect of Private Sector businesses nor the wider public.
We need to implement a mechanism by which fuel prices are determined on a weekly basis based on movements in the international oil price. This mechanism needs to be centrally coordinated and published weekly as an advisory on fuel prices in the print media.
Despite the Prime Minister’s assertions that no intervention is needed, the Government should immediately implement this mechanism and review fuel prices weekly in line with the international oil price.
Yours faithfully,
Robert Badal
