Gasoline, butane prices rise

For those optimistic souls who thought the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would mean a drop in the price of petroleum, we have some bad news. Gas gawn up again. A government release indicates that due to the increase in landed acquisition costs, effective at midnight the new price of premium gasoline is seven-fifty-six per gallon, a rise of twenty-four cents, while regular goes up twenty-two cents to seven-forty-one. Diesel and kerosene will rise by only three cents each to five-twenty and four-fifty-eight respectively. According to the release, the price hikes would have been twice as large, but government intervened with a drop in the revenue replacement tax to ease the financial pain for consumers.

And drivers are not the only ones suffering from skyrocketing petroleum prices. Today the cost of imported butane gas also rose by four dollars per hundred pound cylinder. That empty tank now costs sixty-seven dollars to fill in Belize City, sixty-nine in Belmopan, seventy in San Ignacio, seventy-one in Benque, sixty-six in Corozal, and the same in Orange Walk. Prices in Dangriga and Punta Gorda remain unchanged at sixty-six and sixty-seven dollars respectively.