GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman (CNS) -- Activists who are pressing government to act on gas price regulation are also keen to ensure that any cut in fuel prices trickles down into the community.
Whether it is as a result of transparency and regulation or the suppliers finally reflecting the fall in world prices at the pump, any significant drop in fuel costs should also pave the way for wholesalers and in turn retailers to cut all prices to consumers.
But George Ebanks, the chair of the group petitioning for fuel sector regulation and price cuts, said government could not ignore the need to ensure their efforts to cut the cost of gas spreads across the economy.
He said that once Cayman achieves the goal of cheaper gas, the savings need to be passed on to consumers everywhere, from supermarket prices to air fares, as the cost of fuel has often been justified by the commercial sector for the high cost of living across the board in Cayman. Ebanks said that as government drafts the legislation to regulate fuel pump prices, it needs to consider the bigger picture and seek ways to ensure the necessary trickle down.
“The committee is concerned … about ensuring that once these forward-looking and potentially effective pieces of legislation are passed into law and they result in the fall of our local gas prices, that cost savings can be passed on to the ordinary consumer by way of reduced prices at our supermarkets and all other users of fuel energy,” Ebanks said.
“Indeed, the committee is of the firm opinion that unless some effective mechanisms are put in place, possibly by other legislative amendments and from other ministries, that this opportunity to have achieved cost reduction across the board on our too high and often complained about cost of living will have been wasted,” he added.
Given the ongoing issue of how the price of fuel in Cayman is so much higher than in the US, where much of it is purchased, and the mystery of why there is barely a change at the local pumps for months when global fuel prices fall but prices increase are reflected almost immediately, government has been focused on addressing this issue.
Planning Minister Kurt Tibbetts, who has responsibility for the Petroleum Inspectorate, has made a number of statements regarding efforts to talk with the bulk fuel importers and to get them to lift the lid on how their prices work. In his latest statement in the Legislative Assembly in August, Tibbetts said that unless the two fuel importers, Rubis and Sol, became more transparent and fair about pricing, the government would introduce price controls.
The cost of fuel considered one of the main contributors to the cost of living because of its direct impact on transport costs and the price of power and indirect impact on all prices. However, if government manages to drive down the cost but that is not reflected throughout the economy, it will only have succeeded in boosting merchants’ profits and will not have addressed the real economic hardship of the regular man on the street.