With Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert set to de­liv­er the 2024 Bud­get in less than a month, there are al­ready con­cerns about ad­just­ments to fu­el prices. Some stake­hold­ers are warn­ing that an in­crease could have a domi­no ef­fect on sev­er­al in­dus­tries.

Pres­i­dent of the Pe­tro­le­um Deal­ers As­so­ci­a­tion Robin Narayans­ingh said con­sul­ta­tions with stake­hold­ers are crit­i­cal be­cause of the po­ten­tial im­pact of ris­ing fu­el costs on cit­i­zens’ pock­ets.

“The pe­tro­le­um deal­ers should have con­sul­ta­tions with the Min­istry of En­er­gy and all the stake­hold­ers be­cause they play a very im­por­tant role in the com­mer­cial in­ter­est of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said.

“The whole coun­try and econ­o­my is de­pen­dent on fu­el and it is all fi­nanced by pri­vate gas sta­tion deal­ers. With­out con­sul­ta­tions what hap­pens is that the sup­pli­ers do things that are not in the best in­ter­est of the in­dus­try.”

At a post-bud­get me­dia brief­ing last year, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley urged cit­i­zens to re­think how they con­sume fu­el. He said ad­just­ments had to be made to the sub­sidy and Gov­ern­ment had to make a con­scious de­ci­sion to cap it at $1 bil­lion to al­lo­cate funds wise­ly to all oth­er sec­tors.

Narayans­ingh is ask­ing for up­dates on plans for the pe­tro­le­um sec­tor an­nounced by Im­bert in pre­vi­ous bud­get pre­sen­ta­tions, in­clud­ing the sale of NP gas sta­tions.

“So far, noth­ing has ma­te­ri­alised and we would like him to take a look and give us an up­date on the sta­tus of how far this ini­tia­tive has reached. A lot of gas sta­tion deal­ers are filled with ex­pec­ta­tions and they are very anx­ious to have their en­vi­ron­ment and their in­dus­try in a se­cure and hope­ful man­ner​​​​​​​,” he said.

Pres­i­dent of the All To­ba­go Fish­er­folk As­so­ci­a­tion, Cur­tis Dou­glas said he hoped the Fi­nance Min­is­ter would re­vise the fu­el re­bate for fish­er­men. He said that will go a long way in en­sur­ing the coun­try’s food se­cu­ri­ty is not com­pro­mised.

“We play a key role in food se­cu­ri­ty so we are look­ing at that as­pect in the in­ter­est of lo­cals and en­tre­pre­neurs, es­pe­cial­ly busi­ness­men and fish­er­folk, for a re­bate or some or some non-tax­able en­ti­ty for bonafide fish­er­folk and more so, farm­ers,” he said.

Head of the T&T Taxi Dri­ver Net­work Adri­an Acos­ta said he would be meet­ing with his mem­ber­ship this week to dis­cuss the im­pact of a fu­el in­crease in the up­com­ing bud­get.