By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): When the price of oil drops on the global market the expectation of every consumer and every business owner in Belize is a simple one. The price at the pump should go down too.
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That is not what is happening. And the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry has had enough of watching Belizeans absorb international price relief that never actually reaches them.
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In two letters sent to Prime Minister John Briceño in recent weeks BCCI President Giacomo Sanchez laid out the Chamber’s concerns clearly, professionally and with the kind of urgency that the fuel price situation in Belize demands.
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The first letter sent on April 21st called on the government to explain exactly how pump prices are calculated and to resume publishing detailed fuel price structure schedules so that businesses and consumers can understand what they are actually paying for. The government responded by resuming those publications and the Chamber acknowledged that step in its May 27th follow up letter.
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But the BCCI was equally clear that publishing data and actually solving the problem are two very different things.
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The heart of the Chamber’s concern is what it describes as a fundamental mismatch between global oil price movements and what Belizeans pay at the pump. Excise duties in absolute dollar terms have remained relatively stable even as international prices have shifted. That means when global prices fall the government effectively absorbs the benefit rather than passing it on to the consumer.
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For a business owner running a fleet of vehicles, a farmer moving produce, a fisherman fuelling a boat or an ordinary family filling a tank to get to work every day that mismatch is not an abstract policy discussion. It is money they are not saving that they should be.
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The Chamber is calling for a temporary reduction in excise duties or other targeted fiscal measures to allow international price relief to flow through to the pump.
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The message to the Prime Minister from Belize’s business community is clear. Transparency is good. Actual relief is better.
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The economy is waiting.
The post Global oil prices fall but Belizeans are not feeling it at the pump and the Chamber of Commerce wants answers from the government right now appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Breaking Belize News Staff (HP): When the price of oil drops on the global market the expectation of every consumer and every business owner in Belize is a simple one. The price at the pump should go down too. ⠀ That is not what is happening. And the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry has
The post Global oil prices fall but Belizeans are not feeling it at the pump and the Chamber of Commerce wants answers from the government right now appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
