Gas prices plummet, but Govt. takes its cut

Belizeans planning to hit the road and the sea will have some extra beer money for the long holiday weekend, thanks to a timely reduction in the worldwide price of petroleum products. That drop, due largely to the winding down of the war in Iraq, has resulted in an across the board decrease in prices at the pump of fifty cents per gallon. Effective at midnight, the new Belize City price of premium gasoline is seven oh-five, regular drops to six-ninety, diesel shrinks to an even five dollars, while kerosene descends to four-thirty-five.

While the lowered prices are a welcome relief, viewers should note that the reduction in pump prices is actually less than the drop in acquisition costs by the fuel companies. Those prices dropped by fifty-five cents per gallon for premium and regular, eighty-six cents for diesel and eighty-one cents for kerosene. What happened to the difference? Not surprisingly, government adjusted its tax bite in order to recoup the revenue it gave up by absorbing the higher acquisition costs for three successive shipments prior to the March fifth elections.