Taxes on fuel going down, but still significant

You don’t have to be a taxi driver to know that whatever you’re driving, the price to fill up the tank has never been higher. Ten fifty-nine for a gallon of premium, ten forty-five for regular, nine seventy-two for kerosene and nine sixty-one for diesel, the crucial fuel which propels the economy. And while government has lowered or—in the case of diesel and kerosene—eliminated the revenue replacement duties to lessen the impact of soaring acquisition costs, Belmopan’s take on each gallon is still significant. For those who want to know where the money is going, the chart tells the story.

The first column shows the landed cost of the various fuels; that is the price charged by Exxon including freight, port charges, handling and foreign exchange costs. It should be noted that in the first instance kerosene and diesel are actually more expensive than gasoline. The next two columns add in the profit margin of the three distribution companies—Esso, Shell and Texaco—along with their retail dealers. This adds a little over a dollar to the price of each gallon. Now come the taxes: two percent environmental tax, import duty, G.S.T. and revenue replacement duty. In the case of gasoline the total tax bite is around two-fifty per gallon. In the case of diesel—with R.R.D. removed—it’s one twenty-eight and for duty and R.R.D. free kerosene it’s one ten. So while government has trimmed its share of the fuel pie, it still takes a slice which represents a significant portion of its overall revenues. How much is fair is for you to decide but it is worth noting that when we did this exercise in October 2002, the tax on a gallon of premium was a whopping three seventy-four … or fifty-five percent of the then prevailing price of six eighty-one per gallon.