G.O.B. to Absorb Increase in Diesel Price

With what’s happening in Europe, it is anticipated that prices at the fuel pumps will increase even more. As it currently stands, regular gas is being sold at thirteen dollars. According to Prime Minister John Briceño, diesel would have increased by over a dollar, but that G.O.B. will absorb that cost at this time. But what will happen when the next shipment comes?

John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño

“For us as a country, the taxes that we collect on the price of fuel have been going down. Before we got into government, it was approximately forty-eight percent of the price; now we are down to thirty-eight percent. Today, in cabinet, well we have a retreat this afternoon and all day tomorrow and that is going to be one of the important topics for us to discuss. There was a shipment that came in a few days ago and diesel would have gone up by about a dollar at the pump. And I spoke to the financial secretary and said I simply can’t see how we can absorb that. So, on this shipment alone, we have decided that the government is going to absorb that cost. It is going to cost us about a million and a half dollars. And within a next week or two, more fuel is going to come and so now we have to sit down as a cabinet to decide what we can do because as I pointed out before, fuel brings in about a hundred and fifty million dollars in revenues for the government and we just simply just can’t afford not to collect those taxes.”