It is up to the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration to decide whether it wants to give an ease in gas prices, but the high prices are not its fault.
That is the view of Government’s chief economic adviser Ambassador Dr Clyde Mascoll, who took to the airwaves yesterday at the invitation of political scientist Peter Wickham, moderator of VOB’s Down To Brass Tacks call-in programme, to defend Government’s policies and the steps it took to stimulate the economy along a path for growth.
Members of the public have been raining criticism on Government over the high price of gasoline, diesel and petroleum products, with many consumers quoting gas bills in the hundreds of dollars, but with the fuel lasting less than three weeks. In 2018, the incoming BLP Government removed the road tax and instead applied a fuel tax of 40 cents per litre that affected all users of the product.
One driver the MIDWEEK NATION tracked showed that on August 15 last year, a fill-up for him, using 42 litres of gasoline, cost $133.73. On May 19 this year, that same quantity of gas cost $159.90 and on June 9 it rose to $164.70.
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