WHILE he says he is “not now going to share with you the source of the information,” Ancel Roget claims he can say “for a fact” that fuel prices will be increased in the upcoming budget.

Last week, Roget, president general of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union, called on the government to “halt any plan to increase fuel costs" by way of scrapping the decades-old fuel subsidy – a move he said will only further burden the population.

In the 2020 budget presentation, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced the decision to liberalise the fuel market and remove all subsidies by January 2021, leaving prices at the pump subject to market forces.

In June, Imbert said government must reduce the country's long-standing dependence on billion-dollar subsidies not only on fuel but other commodities like water and electricity, in order to close the gap between expenditure and revenue, and balance the national budget.

But in Parliament two weeks ago, Energy Minister Stuart Young said the new policy removes fixed retail margins like those in the US and UK.

"We are allowing, at the pumps, the retailers to move their prices. That is only going to be allowed once per month, at the beginning of the month.”

He said the existing prices of LPG and CNG would be maintained.

But speaking at the union's Paramount Building headquarters in San Fernando on Monday, Roget asked, “As a people, how much more are we prepared to take before we appropriately respond to this injustice?”

He said Young is trying to “hoodwink” the population by saying CNG and LPG prices will not increase.

“And mark my word, that’s just a matter of time,” he said. “The real bullet that’s coming to hit you is the cost of fuel – diesel, kerosene, premium, super – all of which would immediately be converted into an increased cost of living.

“We have confirmed information that in this new budget that is going to be presented by the Minister of Finance, they are going for the jugular…They are increasing the cost of fuel.”

He said some people believe once they do not own a vehicle, they will not be affected.

“But you yourself will be immediately caught up in the increased cost for transport, and as a result of the increase in transport, for goods and services.”

He said Imbert would “(add) tax (to) tax” if he could.”

He drew an analogy to the government's closing the down state-owned Petrotrin refinery to import fuel, saying, “You shut down your fridge or sell your fridge or put your fridge outside – and now you buying ice.

“It is poor governance, poor policy positions, operating a government by vaps.”

He said the government is practising “callousness and uncaringness,” and referred to the Finance Ministry’s draft estimates.

He said between 2012 and 2016, the salaries of the Prime Minister and other government ministers increased by 24 per cent.

“So they could stand up in Parliament and tell you, 'Lock down, lock away, shut up, stop that right now'