'Leave
gas subsidy'
Trinidad Express
Petroleumworldtt.com
03 30 08
BUSINESS owners are giving an absolute thumbs down
to Government's idea of removing the $2 billion
subsidy on oil and gas, saying it would cause a
chain
effect that would be detrimental to consumers.
According to Daphne Bartlett, president
of the San Fernando Business Association, "the impending
removal of the oil and gas subsidy will be hard".
"We have to be realistic. The cost of living
is tremendously high," she told the Express.
Manager of FM Enterprises Company Ltd, Faizam
Mohammed, also warns that removing the subsidy
would create a negative chain reaction.
"Inputs will cost more, therefore
prices will have to go up. I think that for an
oil-rich
country, the subsidy should remain."
He said his company imports all
the grain and the materials that go into producing
his chicken
products and "the cost of importing is expensive".
Daniel Austin, public relations
officer at X-tra Foods supermarket at Grand Bazaar,
Valsayn, said
the subsidy removal would have a "catastrophic
effect".
"If gas goes up, food will
have to go up because the cost of transportation
goes up."
Austin noted that globally, food prices were rising,
as the demand has increased but the supply has
stayed the same. He said the supermarket was currently
searching for cheaper alternatives to keep costs
at bay, including eliminating middlemen in trade.
"We are looking to buy certain
basic foods from international sources."
This, he claims, should help alleviate the need
for the middle man.
Energy Minister Conrad Enill has said that Government
is conducting a preliminary examination of the
subsidy in light of record high global oil prices.
Trade and Industry Minister Keith Rowley has also
said the time had come for the Government to reconsider
the subsidy, given the global price of oil, which
yesterday stood at US$110 a barrel, and the fact
that it was paying this price to import oil for
the State-owned refinery Petrotrin.
Consumers are feeling the brunt of the ten per
cent inflation rate mainly at the supermarket counters.
Single parent, Nicole Lochan, of
D'Abadie, says "You
can't afford to buy anything in the supermarket
when you go with your salary, money is too small."
Taxi driver Chapman Moseley, who
operates along the Malabar Main Road, says, "Once
gas gone up, that's it. It affects the whole
world. Right
now its $3 to travel and $4 off route, but if gas
raise it will increase by $1."
At the moment, motorists are paying $3 per litre
to fill up the tank of a gasoline-fuelled vehicle.
Story by Aabida
Allaham from
The Trinidad Express
-aallaham@trinidadexpress.com
The
Trinidad Express
Monday, March 17th 2008
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