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Financial Secretary Mrs. Janet Harris (r) and St. Kitts and Nevis' Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Hon. Denzil L. Douglas (Photo by Erasmus Williams) | BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 23RD 2006 - A senior government official said Thursday there will be no increase in cooking gas and taxi and bus fares with the December 1, 2006 implementation of a "Full Pass Through System" in determining the retail price of unleaded gasoline in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Financial Secretary Mrs. Janet Harris said while the policy shift will affect prices at the pump for unleaded gasoline in the future, there would be no increase in bus and taxi fares and Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) or cooking gas.
"We have been having ongoing discussions with the bus drivers and taxi operators over the years, especially with respect to rising prices of oil with bus drivers and I know with taxi drivers as well, because the concerns are there with respect to the fares. Now of course, when prices go down, there would be no question about lowering the fares, but when prices go up, we always hear that we want to increase the fares," said Mrs. Harris.
She said that in the discussions between the Ministry of Finance and the bus drivers Government has encouraged them to keep the prices stable because public transportation is such an important part of the economy.
"We don't want too much volatility in that area. And what government has done is to support public transportation, because the government does not offer public transportation as one of its services, but it supports those who provide public transportation by giving them a wide range of concessions," said the Financial Secretary, who said that bus and taxi operators will continue to enjoy duty free concessions on new buses and taxis under the existing agreement. Passenger and taxi operators also benefit from duty-free concessions on tires and spare parts such as brake pads brake shoes.
"And when we discussed with them, they did not seem to have too many concerns about the increases. As a matter of fact, in 2005, what we did in agreement with the bus drivers, was allowed them to increase the price (fare) for the short distances so that would help to pay for the long distances," said the Financial Secretary.
~~adz:Left~~She said when the new pricing policy goes into effect on December 1, 2006, the immediate result might be a decrease in unleaded gasoline "based on what we are seeing."
"And so we are not going to ask the bus drivers to decrease their fares. In the same way, when the price goes up, we would not expect a request for an increase in fares because there would be a trade off. Some months it will be down, some months it will be up, but on average it should come out even because the Ministry of Finance is going to be keeping track of this," said Harris on Thursday.
She added that if there are any large spikes, "we will do what it takes and provide that buffer to keep the price as stable as possible. So the impact on public transportation, there should actually be no impact because we expect that given the support that the government gives to bus drivers and taxi drivers and the changes that we have made in 2005 and I think with the taxi drivers it was in 2006, that will help."
"We made some changes with them with respect to their fares, that this is sufficient to keep them for some time and if there is any spike, we will do what we can to make sure that there is some alleviation," said the Financial Secretary.
Mrs. Harris said the new policy shift would not affect LPG or cooking gas.
"This will remain under the same old policy mechanism where the surtax that is used to buffer the price. The government absorbs anything that goes above the $140.00 for the 100-pound or large tank and the $30.00 for the 20 pound cylinder or small tank," said Harris.
"The government will continue if necessary to subsidise the price of those products although we are now in debit to the oil companies," said Mrs. Harris.~~adz:Right~~
"I do not know how long it will continue, but in order not to cause more hardship or disruption in the economy, especially to the vulnerable groups, because everybody needs to use the LPG, we have decided to hold that mechanism steady for now and subsidization, if necessary will continue," she said.
She expressed some concern on the indiscriminate increases by the suppliers of diesel at a time when it is low on the world market.
"We are not announcing a change in diesel at the moment, but we are looking at the pricing mechanism for diesel, because we have received complaints and concerns have been expressed that the price of diesel, whereas on the world market we were seeing that the price of diesel should be lower than the price of unleaded gasoline, we had an anomaly where the price of diesel in St. Kitts was higher than the price of gasoline. So we are looking at that and it's possible that there would be some changes announced later but if it regularises itself then there might be no need for a change," said Harris on Thursday. |
