St Lucian petroleum dealers want price cap

The St Lucia government has announced a slight increase in the price of fuel here, promoting an appeal from the island's petroleum dealers for the Stephenson King administration to introduce measures to bring relief to them and consumers.

The government on Monday said the price of fuel would now be retailed at EC$15.38 (US$5.69), an increase of EC$1 (US$0.37).

Prime Minister King said there are no easy solutions to cope with rising fuel prices and cautioned that any decision taken to bring relief to customers would be at cost to taxpayers of the country.

King said world oil prices were affected by a number of external prices which were beyond the control of small oil-importing states like St Lucia.

However, president of the Petroleum Dealers Association (PDA), Clinton Charlery, said it was incumbent upon government to find a resolution to the rising fuel prices, and suggested that the price be capped at the new rate announced on Monday.

"Neither government nor ourselves has created this problem, it is one that is international. But it did not just happen today. We should have been thinking about it and gearing up to put something in place to find a modicum of relief to the many people who are complaining.

"I also believe that the users of gas must be more responsible and deploy conservation measures such as car pooling so as to conserve on the use of gas," he said.

But the PDA president urged the authorities to cap the fuel price at EC$15 (US$5.55) and provide a subsidy to meet the balance.

heavy load

"Let's face it, we are the ones to govern and we have to find ways and means of doing it. We, as petroleum dealers, are being asked to act responsibly and do the right things, we have been suffering much the same as our margin has been going down right through.

"We have got to find a lot more money to purchase the same gas and retain the same margin, we are not complaining, but the time has come where some of us can no longer continue operating. We now have a load we cannot carry so something has to be done," Charley said.

"So these are issues that government should at least be thinking of, realising that they are responsible for the governing of this nation and all sectors, so something must be done now," he added.

"We are saying that the price of gas should be regulated, at least cap it and hope that the international events will regulate themselves and the price will start going back down, but we cannot continue to survive under these conditions," the PDA president added.

The government said that it is also worried that increasing political turmoil in the Middle East and Northern Africa could result in increases in prices for fuel in the near future.

"To date, all regional governments are still monitoring the situation and deliberating on their next course of action. All other Eastern Caribbean Currency Union countries have continued to implement their market pass-through pricing system and have not yet intervened to mitigate the adverse effects of the rising price of oil," King said.

St Lucia spends an estimated EC$200 million (US$74 million) on importing energy products annually.

- CMC