After Short Price Hike, Importers Holding Butane Hostage?

Last Friday, the price of LPG went up by seven dollars per hundred pound cylinder. While that increase kept supply of butane going, there is information of an impasse between Liquid Petroleum Gas importers and the Government. Complaints reaching our studios were that importers were selling butane to distributors at a wholesale price of one hundred and twenty dollars per hundred pound cylinder, without consultations. That triggered a meeting last Thursday between the Belize Bureau of Standards and the three main importers, namely: Gas Tomza, BWEL and Zeta Gas. And by Friday, retail butane gas took a hike by seven dollars to consumers. But it appears that the increase does not bode well with the importers who were expecting a higher increase. Today, News Five received calls to the effect that the suppliers have been rationing fuel. When we checked, we were informed that there is an impasse between G.O.B. and the LPG importers, and negotiations are currently underway to resolve the issue. News Five was reliably informed that G.O.B. is awaiting a counterproposal from the importers, who bring in fuel from Central America.  Government, we have learnt, is looking at other options, to keep the supply going.