Regular Gas Price Saw Slight Decrease in September

Another area where Belizeans are severely feeling the pinch is at the fuel pumps. But, while you may not have taken note of it, the price of regular gasoline actually decreased by thirty-one cents back in September. No official announcement was made of this decrease; however, Minister Coye says the acquisition cost of regular gas has seen a decrease over the last couple of months. Notwithstanding the decrease, the price of regular fuel remains higher than where it stood in January of 2022. And, according to the Minister of State, the Government of Belize is still losing on fuel.   Here is how he explained it.

Christopher Coye

Christopher Coye, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance

“How that fuel price and cap structure has been working, the cap was placed on regular and diesel not on premium. So, whatever the acquisition cost was on premium that translated fully into what the pump price was on premium. That is why pump price on premium is significantly higher than the other prices, the regular and diesel. In the case of regular and diesel, what government did was start reducing the excise duty on fuel so that the fixed price could remain. So, when government reduced the excise tax, obviously customs is losing revenue, government is losing revenue, that has accumulated to twenty-six, twenty seven million dollars. At some points in the year it was extreme, the excise tax had been reduced to virtually zero in one instance. Ultimately the prices have started to come back down, but it hasn’t come back down to where it was in January of this year. So, we are actually still losing, just not as much, a lot less. In the case of regular there was a point in September, October when the price of regular came down below what the price was in January and that is how you saw the first reduction in the price cap on regular. I think it was at thirteen fifty and it was reduced to thirteen nineteen or something like that. So, that was a reflection of the acquisition cost of regular coming down. That was reflected in the reduction.”