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Consumers will see an increase in gas prices from early July 2017, and this is expected to have a domino effect on the cost of several commodities and services, such as groceries, public transportation and electricity.
That’s according to former president of the Petroleum Dealers Association Everistus Jn. Marie who believes that this is in part due to an impending increase in excise tax on petroleum imports locally and other external factors.
Former president of the Petroleum Dealers Association, Everistus Jn. Marie.
Recently, the Allen Chastanet-led United Workers Party (UWP) administration revealed that it would increase the price of gas by $1.50 per gallon, bringing it from $2.50 to $4 per gallon.
This, the government said was necessary as it was restructuring its policy due to the global financial situation in order to limit the number of loans taken to repair and rehabilitate road networks.
According to Jn. Marie, the “official word” is that the added tax will take effect in early July.
He believes that external factors will also negatively impact prices and explained that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has already indicated an intention to cut back supplies.
He stated that this will “compound the situation” and add another component of increase to gas prices.
Jn. Marie expects that this will eventually begin to reflect on the price of goods and services, particularly those within the distributive trade.
“So by the time we have this new price increase, sometime in July, you will have two components of increases; one due to external factors and one due to increase in the government’s excise tax on fuel,” he said to HTS Newsforce in an interview.
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