Fuel costs up; Gov’t absorbs loss

Those high fuel prices cited by Belize City bakers could have been much higher. A release from Government indicates that the last shipment of imported petroleum products came at a substantially increased cost than the previous delivery. If those costs had been passed on to consumers it would have resulted in thirteen cents per gallon more for premium, seventeen cents more for regular and a whopping twenty cents increase per gallon of diesel. Instead, government took a decision to absorb the increased costs by lowering the taxes on fuel to compensate for the price hikes. The decision was taken in light of the hardships already inflicted on the people and economy of the country by Hurricane Keith.