THE EDITOR: The Government looks like it is implementing International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommendations without letting the country know it is doing so.
It seems to be doing so by increasing utility rates at TSTT and WASA and has signalled increased prices at the pump if subsidies are removed. Fuel-price increases will affect all areas of citizens' lives and will increase the cost of goods and services.
Therefore it was surprising that, without a second thought and with one casual statement, Prime Minister Rowley stated during his Conversations with the Prime Minister on March 8 that the CNG initiative is basically dead. He said he instructed the Minister of Energy and Energy Industries to accelerate the Government's plan to move to electric vehicles and obtain electric buses for TT.
With gas prices rising at the pump due to the increase in energy prices worldwide and also the Russia-Ukraine war, motorists will have to pay more.
Dr Rowley stated that if the Government removes the fuel subsidies, premium gasoline would rise from $5.75 per litre to $7.58, super gasoline would go from $4.97 to $7.46 per litre, and diesel from $3.71 to $6.58 per litre. All this would have been buffeted by the move to CNG fuel, which is only $1 per litre at the pump. Yet it is now scrapped.
The population would have saved more than $100 million a year in lower fuel prices with CNG as an alternate fuel. So another increase in fuel prices will definitely put undue pressure on people. The population cannot take a further burden and three fuel price increases since 2015 is unacceptable.
Another increase will put increased burdens on the backs of citizens who already cannot cope with high food prices, increased cost in goods and services and all the job losses since the covid19 pandemic. They are facing reduced income, increased taxes and unemployment - a recipe for disaster.
I think the PM could have made this pronouncement in a better way. This is a serious blow to the National Gas Company (NGC) and basically made the subsidiary company, NGC CNG, obsolete. NGC CNG is a special purpose state company with a mandate to expand and improve the use of CNG across the country and has spent millions on getting the CNG initiative up and running.
Just like that, in a discussion, the Prime Minister announced the death of the CNG initiative. He said nothing on what he would be doing to promote or build on mobility solutions for the electric vehicles scheme, nor how we are supposed to get the electric vehicles in TT as there is a shortage of these vehicles worldwide.
If the Government did not close down Petrotrin and its refinery operations, the country could have weathered this storm and earned foreign exchange. With the increase in oil prices, Petrotrin would have been able to ramp up production of fuels for the export market and buffer the local market.
Heritage oil production has declined from 2015 to 2021 by approximately 19 per cent and yet we have
