Price ease: Consumers to pay less for gasoline and diesel Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

Consumers will be paying less for gasoline and diesel from Friday, August 19, 2022.

Gasoline will be reduced from $4.83 to $4.48 per litre, while diesel will be priced at $4.03 as opposed to $4.28 per litre.

This was announced by Prime Minister The Honorable Mia Amor Mottley during a press conference held today Monday, August 15.

Prime Minister Mottley revealed that firstly the price cap of Value Added Tax [VAT] which allows the government to absorb around 22 cents for gasoline and 26 cents for diesel [per litre] will stay in effect until January 31, 2023, to allow Barbadians to be shielded more.

“My first obligation in speaking to you this afternoon is to be able to indicate what the position of the government will be going forward with respect to the cap of the value added tax that we placed on fuel items, gasoline, and diesel to be specific. We’re satisfied that we’re going to have to keep that cap in place. That cap, for example, has made the difference of 26 cents I believe on diesel so if that cap was not there, the diesel price would be 26 cents per litre more and I believe it is 22 cents with respect to gasoline. We are going to extend that cap at least until the 31st of January and we are doing that recognising that Barbadians do need to be shielded some more.

“The truth, however, is that that cap in and of itself is not necessarily proving to be enough. While things are difficult even for the government, we feel that we have an obligation to shield Barbadians more. We’ve looked around at the prices and we’ve looked around at what we can do and we’ve made a determination as a government.”

In this vein, the Prime Minister also disclosed that government will bite the bullet and shoulder the loss to lower the prices of gasoline and diesel at the pump from this week.

“You would recognize that this is not the government’s first attempt at obviously trying to shield Barbadians the best we can and we believe that this therefore will allow us to do that. There has been a decline in prices so we’re not capping at the highest possible price, the truth is that the $4.83 at the pump that you’re paying now for gasoline is at a far higher price than what is currently available and to that extent, we will absorb the loss on that because those prices were to remained in place until the end of January.

“Since then there was a shipment that came in at lesser and we believe we have to cap it at the lesser amount and therefore with effect from Friday morning, we will have the price of gasoline at the pump capped at the price of $4.48 per litre and with respect to diesel at $4.03 per litre.”

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