Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas

On Wednesday Forbes Magazine and other international media houses reported that light, sweet crude for April delivery rose 49 cents to US$61.90 a barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after rising as high as UD$62.30 earlier.

During Tuesday's Press Conference Prime Minister Douglas emphasised that the fuel surcharge which was implemented last November, was totally unavoidable.

He said that the recent 55th Meeting of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank

(ECCB) Monetary Council "reviewed the elements of an oil pricing mechanism geared to addressing the implementation of a full pass through system in the member countries at a date to be specified."

"In other words, the fuel surcharge is something that we all have to come to terms with for the governments (of the OECS) would not be able to continue the level of subsidy to generate a kilowatt of electricity," pointed out Prime Minister Douglas.

In calling on all residents of St. Kitts and Nevis to become "conscious as to how we use electricity," Dr. Douglas said conservation methods must be practiced to reduce energy usage and save money on utility bills.

"We must become more conscious in terms of the conservation of electricity.

We must make adjustments to the practices in our own lifestyles. If we are accustomed to go to bed with three televisions on in rooms where everybody is asleep, for God's sake turn them off; nobody is looking at them; if all of your lights are on in your homes and no one is in those rooms, turn them off. Let us make the necessary adjustment," pleaded Prime Minister Douglas.

He said St. Kitts and Nevis, like all other Caribbean nations and those further afield has certain specific problems and "we are attempting to address these specific problems."

"One way of addressing those problems is to cut back on the subsidies that the government has been providing in the past. We are no longer able to provide all of the subsidies in the same way and so we have to make adjustments and as a Government, we have attempted to make those adjustments and so we would expect our citizens to make adjustments as well," reiterated Prime Minister Douglas.

He also told reporters that last week's demonstration against the fuel surcharge was nothing else but political.

In an interview with the BBC Caribbean Report prior to the demonstration last Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Douglas charged that the march was politically motivated.

However, observers labelled it a failure as less than 200 persons participated. Organisers said they expected 8,000 people.