Opinion
- Editorial- Commentary
Express Editorial :
Setting
the stage for gas price debate
IT has been more than two years since Prime Minister
Patrick Manning declared in a budget presentation that
the time was ripe in Trinidad and Tobago for a national
discussion on the price of energy.
Now that the discussion has begun, it is stating the
obvious to say better late than never. Searing complaints
and criticisms have been on-going for sometime now
about the number of vehicles, in particular private
cars being used for personal use, on the roads. Traffic
congestion is a fact of life in almost every urban
centre across the country. Near gridlock is the order
of the day from all points into and out of Port of
Spain.
In San Fernando and Arima, in Princes Town and Marabella,
in Diego Martin and Tunapuna, to name a few of the
built-up towns and communities across the country,
time lost in traffic jams is an increasing day-to-day
occurrence.
The proposition being advanced is that one of the
reasons for this build-up of cars on the roads is the
too-casual approach of citizens to the use of energy
as a means of mobility.
Fuel prices in this country have benefitted from a
subsidy now revealed to be at the value of $2 billion
a year.
Ministers Dr Keith Rowley and Conrad Enill have put
the Government's cards on the table, so to speak, balancing
the energy subsidy against the need to spend money
on improving the water supply system.
Whether or not this is an apt equation, it at least
gets the game started. The great energy debate must
now be engaged by all the interest groups involved,
as well as ordinary citizens who in the final analysis
must consider that we are the ultimate beneficiaries
of whatever decision is arrived at. Or, alternatively,
it is the people who will bear the consequences of
action which may not be based on the soundest of
rationales.
Is there really merit in the argument that whether
the State continues to pay the subsidy, or that fuel
prices are allowed to fetch market prices the taxpayer
ultimately pays for it?
How strong is the contrary argument that the people
of Trinidad and Tobago ought rightly to benefit from
the fact that the energy they use is part of the national
patrimony? And for the sake of this argument as well,
there seems to be an urgent call for guarantees that
if the subsidy shifts from energy and fuel prices to
some other area of need in the economy, it will result
in the necessary improvements.
The pros and cons must be set out clearly, comprehensively
and simply enough to be easily understood by the mass
of the society.
However logical or objective the ends may appear to
be the Government must not approach a final decision
in the absence of a properly conducted discussion with
the population.
Trinidad
Express is
one of the leading newspapers in Trinidad & Tobago.
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This
commentary was originally published by Trinidad Express,
on Tuesday, January 22nd 2008. Petroleumworld reprint
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News 01/27/08
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