Govt
'playing with fire' if it increases fuel prices
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
01 27 08
UNC Deputy Leader Wade Mark yesterday accused Government
of "pulling wool
over the eyes of the population".
Mark was reacting to statements from Ministers
Keith Rowley and Conrad Enill on the need to review
the $2 billion subsidy Government pays to keep
gas prices down.
Mark
said the Government was "playing with
fire" if it attempted to increase the prices
of fuel. "The moment you touch fuel prices,
everything else goes up- the cost of transportation,
food prices," he said, adding that inflation
was already high.
He
called on Government to "come clean, transparent
and open" and provide a detailed breakdown
on the various elements and components that make
up the subsidy. Noting that Government gets a petroleum
profit tax from the oil and gas-based companies,
Mark said Government should state how much profit
by way of high oil prices it received from these
companies over the past six years.
"Is Government really subsiding fuel or is
it the consumers, the oil companies and transnational
corporations"? he asked. "It is not as
simple as the Government is making it out to be
since Government could be fooling the country by
exaggerating the cost of the subsidy," he
said.
"In
our view, the subsidy is much less than the $2
billion. And if it is say $600 million,
is that a high price for Government to pay given
the fact that we are an oil producing company?
Noting that Government had signalled that there
might be an increase in water rates, Mark said
all these things were not part of the PNM manifesto.
He
urged Government to address the high cost overruns
in projects like the Tarouba Stadium, the Churchill
Roosevelt Highway and the Rapid Rail Project "which
is already engulfed in corruption" and to
use the savings to fund the subsidies of basic
items such as gas and water.
Story
by Ria Tait, Political Editor from Trinidad Express
Trinidad
Express
Wednesday,
January 23rd 2008
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