JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, June 27, 2025

Anxiety over gas price hike, increase in cost of living

by

Raphael John-Lall
1006 days ago
20220925

Raphael John-Lall

raphael.lall@guardian.co.tt

Mo­torists will have to pay more for gas at the pump and the cost of liv­ing will con­tin­ue to es­ca­late if the Gov­ern­ment acts on its plan to cap the fu­el sub­sidy at $1 bil­lion.

This is the view of dif­fer­ent stake­hold­ers from work­ers to taxi dri­vers to an econ­o­mist who spoke to the Sun­day Guardian re­cent­ly.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert–speak­ing dur­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion at the Spot­light on the Econ­o­my at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel, Port-of-Spain, ear­li­er this month–es­ti­mat­ed that the fu­el sub­sidy will cost the Gov­ern­ment $2.6 bil­lion for 2022 at cur­rent en­er­gy prices. Im­bert said that for the fis­cal year 2023, it could cost $2.1 bil­lion based on US$97.50 a bar­rel of oil, and he re­vealed the Gov­ern­ment's in­ten­tion to cap the fu­el sub­sidy at $1 bil­lion.

Eyes are now trained on Im­bert as he gets set to read the 2022-2023 bud­get to­mor­row.

Im­bert not­ed that T&T has one of the re­gion’s low­est gas prices. Ac­cord­ing to da­ta from glob­alpetrol­prices.com, the price of gaso­line in oil-pro­duc­ing T&T av­er­ages US$0.99 per litre.

Bar­ba­dos, for ex­am­ple, has one of the re­gion’s and world’s high­est gas prices. Ac­cord­ing to the da­ta, Bar­ba­di­ans are pay­ing an av­er­age of US$2.34 for gaso­line, which is high­er than places such as the UK, Switzer­land, Sin­ga­pore, Ire­land and Swe­den.

Among oth­er Caribbean coun­tries, Ja­maica has the sec­ond high­est cost per litre for gas–US$1.74, fol­lowed by the Ba­hamas at US$1.71, the Cay­man Is­lands at US$1.66 and St Lu­cia at US$1.46 per litre.

Dr Regan Deonanan, senior economist at the University of the West Indies.

Dr Regan Deonanan, senior economist at the University of the West Indies.

PHOTO DR REGAN DEONANAN

In Suriname, the gas price is US$1.10 per litre and in Guyana, it is US$1.30.

Econ­o­mist

Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) econ­o­mist Dr Re­gan De­o­nanan told the Sun­day Guardian that high­er gas prices will lead to a high­er cost of liv­ing for T&T’s cit­i­zens.

"The di­rect and more im­me­di­ate im­pact of a cut in the fu­el sub­sidy is an in­crease in the cost of liv­ing in T&T for house­holds. With­out need­ing to be said, the price of trans­porta­tion for in­di­vid­u­als will go up. But trans­porta­tion costs al­so af­fect the price of oth­er goods and ser­vices with­in the econ­o­my, and these are al­so like­ly to in­crease. Many of the af­fect­ed goods and ser­vices are re­quired by house­holds. In the case of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, their op­er­at­ing costs are like­ly to in­crease."

De­o­nanan said fu­el prices, in all cat­e­gories, have in­creased sev­er­al times over the last decade. The larg­er in­creas­es oc­curred for un­lead­ed su­per gaso­line and au­to diesel. For in­stance, un­lead­ed su­per gaso­line was $3.11 per litre (vat in­clu­sive) in 2015. By 2022, this price in­creased to $5.97. In the case of au­to diesel, the price in­creased from $1.72 in 2015 to $3.91 by 2022. Un­lead­ed pre­mi­um gaso­line in­creased from $5.75 in 2012 to $6.75 in 2022.

Cit­i­zens speak out

There is anx­i­ety among cit­i­zens from all walks of life as they com­plain about in­creas­ing gas prices and the neg­a­tive im­pact on their lives.

Taxi dri­ver

Aaron Guer­ra, a taxi dri­ver who works on the Co­corite to La Hor­quet­ta route in Ari­ma, pre­dict­ed that taxi fares on his route as well as in oth­er parts of the coun­try will go up again if gas prices are raised an­oth­er time.

He said taxi fares on the route he op­er­ates from in­creased five years ago, and af­ter gas prices raised in April, there was a fare in­crease from $5 one way to $6 one way.

"10 years ago to fill my tank used to cost me $130 to $140, now to fill my tank is close to $300 a day.  So if I make $400 to $500 dai­ly, I have to spend up to $300 to fill my tank. That’s half of my day’s earn­ings. Pas­sen­gers were very an­gry when there was the last in­crease in May. But we had no oth­er choice as gas prices went up."

Based on the Gov­ern­ment's pro­nounce­ments about cut­ting the fu­el sub­sidy, he said there was the pos­si­bil­i­ty their route as well as taxi dri­vers from oth­er parts of the coun­try will raise their fares.

"I work from 6 am to 6 pm, so with the last gas price in­crease, I have to make more trips dai­ly to earn more mon­ey to fill my tank. You un­der­stand why more fare in­creas­es are on the hori­zon."

He al­so said car own­ers and taxi dri­vers spend a lot of mon­ey on car main­te­nance and gas prices add to that cost.

"Tyres, sus­pen­sion, the en­gine, all this cost a lot of mon­ey to main­tain as a taxi dri­ver. A taxi dri­ver has to put aside $1,500 to $2,000 month­ly just for main­te­nance. So you could see that when they raise gas price in­creas­es on this why taxi dri­vers will raise fares again."

Sin­gle moth­er

Lyn­cia–who is a moth­er of five rang­ing from ages 21, 18, 15, 8 and one-year-and-a-half–does not know how she will sur­vive if gas prices and ac­com­pa­ny­ing taxi fares go up.

She lives in La Ro­maine, works in a su­per­mar­ket in San Fer­nan­do and earns be­tween $400 to $600 week­ly.

"It is re­al­ly tough. The first three chil­dren, their fa­ther died and I don’t get any help from the fa­ther of the next two. I do get so­cial as­sis­tance of $1,500 month­ly and it helps with some things. My 15-year-old son goes to Ser­vol and he trav­els there every day so if gas prices go up and taxi fares go up again, I don’t know how he’ll go to school. I have to trav­el to work dai­ly too. Re­cent­ly in the La Ro­maine area, the taxi fare went up from $6 to $8," she told the Sun­day Guardian.

She added that food prices are al­so go­ing up in ad­di­tion to oth­er ba­sics need­ed to live and she hopes the Gov­ern­ment thinks about the poor be­fore they raise the price of gas or big busi­ness own­ers raise the price of oth­er com­modi­ties.

"Things are get­ting hard­er every day for peo­ple who have no mon­ey. All I could do is pray that gas prices don’t rise again. I don’t know how my chil­dren and I will sur­vive."

Pub­lic ser­vant

One pub­lic ser­vant who on­ly gave his name as Kevin said that with wages be­ing kept low, gas price in­creas­es will on­ly neg­a­tive­ly im­pact or­di­nary work­ers like him and his fam­i­ly.

"Peo­ple buy ve­hi­cles be­cause they can­not af­ford to buy a house as the prices are out of the reach of nor­mal peo­ple. So they buy a car to show am­bi­tion. Al­so, peo­ple don’t have to re­ly on an un­re­li­able pub­lic trans­port sys­tem.

"It’s cost­ly to main­tain a car be­cause of the ter­ri­ble roads in T&T as you have to change a tyre, rim and sus­pen­sion. I spend $1,500 on su­per gas on my car every month dri­ving from South to North. With gas prices go­ing up and could in­crease in the near fu­ture, I may have to use pub­lic trans­porta­tion or walk."

Fa­ther of two

A fa­ther of two chil­dren who gave his name on­ly as George told the Sun­day Guardian that at the mo­ment he does not have a car and his two chil­dren use pub­lic trans­porta­tion to trav­el to school.

‘"I live on O’Meara Road in Ari­ma and my chil­dren have to trav­el to school every day. A few months ago they raised the taxi fare by $1 from here to the cen­tre of Ari­ma. Every day, you’re see­ing food prices go­ing up, and now the Gov­ern­ment’s talk­ing about an­oth­er in­crease in gas prices. All of this is hurt­ing my pock­et."

Busi­ness­man

Clint Ar­joon, who is based in South Oropouche and owns sev­er­al busi­ness­es in the block man­u­fac­tur­ing and rental sec­tors, said that in­creas­es in fu­el prices will on­ly have a neg­a­tive in­crease on his busi­ness as well as oth­ers.

"I don’t see any pos­i­tive im­pact that these in­creas­es have. The Gov­ern­ment ar­gues that re­duc­ing the fu­el sub­sidy will give them more mon­ey to spend on so­cial ser­vices, but I don’t see it that way. Look at the roads, for ex­am­ple, they are still de­te­ri­o­rat­ing."

He gave ex­am­ples of how high­er fu­el prices will im­pact not on­ly busi­ness own­ers but al­so work­ers.

"So they are col­lect­ing these ex­tra tax­es and the cit­i­zens and busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty are not see­ing the re­sults. I have seen in­creased re­pair to my ve­hi­cles. I have to in­crease prices in terms of trans­porta­tion and com­modi­ties be­cause of the fact that we have to cater for the amount of dam­age, cater for the ex­tra ex­pen­di­ture in fu­el prices. We al­so have to cater for the work­ers who are trav­el­ling. We have to give them wage in­creas­es to com­pen­sate for the high­er taxi fares. So a busi­ness per­son has to charge more for goods and ser­vices."

He added that what he man­u­fac­tures is not a ne­ces­si­ty like food in a su­per­mar­ket, if peo­ple cut back on dis­pos­able in­come, the dec­o­ra­tive con­crete blocks he sells would be the first ca­su­al­ty.

"I al­so have a portable toi­let busi­ness where trans­porta­tion is im­por­tant. Nor­mal­ly where it would cost $800 to $900 for trans­porta­tion to go to Ga­le­o­ta on the Ma­yaro side, my price has gone up to $1,500 now. Be­cause that road­way is the worst it has in T&T. It means I have to pay more labour and I will get less done for the day. I al­so have a pool clean­ing busi­ness, in my ser­vices where I have to be run­ning to get clean­ing sup­plies. It will have an in­crease in cost be­cause of the high­er gas prices."

Re­gard­less of how the analy­sis is done, he said, no one is ben­e­fit­ing from the in­crease in gas prices.

"To me, this re­flects the Gov­ern­ment’s in­ef­fi­cient man­age­ment of state re­sources."

 In­creas­es over the years

Quot­ing from the Price of Pe­tro­le­um Prod­ucts doc­u­ment, De­o­nanan gave the price in­creas­es of su­per gaso­line, pre­mi­um gaso­line and diesel over the past ten years.

In April 2022, the prices of pre­mi­um gaso­line and su­per gaso­line were ad­just­ed by $1 per litre to $6.75 and $5.97 per litre re­spec­tive­ly, while the price of diesel went up by 50 cents per litre to $3.91 per litre.

In 2018,  un­lead­ed su­per gaso­line in­creased to $4.97 per litre.

In 2017, diesel in­creased to $3.41 while su­per gaso­line in­creased to $3.97 per litre.

In 2016, diesel in­creased to $1.98 $2.30, while su­per gaso­line in­creased to $3.58 per litre.

In 2015, diesel in­creased to $1.72 while su­per gaso­line in­creased to $3.11 per litre.

In 2012, un­lead­ed pre­mi­um gaso­line in­creased to $5.75 per litre.

Business BudgetGas stations


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

MARIELA BRUZUAL

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

MARIELA BRUZUAL

Aripo treehouse showcases art and design

6 hours ago
Cuatrista Richard Nurse

Cuatrista Richard Nurse

Cuatrista Richard Nurse

Cuatrista Richard Nurse

‘Timeless’ golden music from Louis and the Lynx

6 hours ago
Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo completes South Carolina steelpan residency

Yesterday
LRF officials handing over donations to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital.

LRF officials handing over donations to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital.

LRF officials handing over donations to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital.

LRF officials handing over donations to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital.

Mother’s life of giving inspires charitable foundation

Yesterday