Government does not intend to take any action to ensure that consumers benefit from the fall in oil prices but rather is hoping that the ‘market’ would act in this regard.
“Government is hoping that the ‘market’ will work adequately and government would not need to intervene,” Prime Minister Samuel Hinds told Stabroek News when asked whether government is going to take any action to ensure that consumers benefit from the fall in oil prices. As it relates to costs in the transportation sector, he said that it is too early to say. “There are many considerations, many contributions, and again one would hope, firstly, that the ‘market’ would act adequately,” the Prime Minister said.
Last November, as oil prices dropped, government had increased the excise tax on fuel. “Government has in place a long-standing and well-functioning mechanism under which the ad valorem tax rate on fuel products is adjusted downwards when the world market price for fuel moves upwards, and vice versa; it adjusts upwards when the
