Gas Pain!, that's what the taxi men are calling the post-pandemic price hikes of fuel.
Cherisse Halsall visited gas stations this morning to find out how the soaring gas prices are affecting drivers, and tonight we'll tell you what's behind their fuel woes. Here's that story:
Exactly one year ago on February second, 2021 regular gasoline was at 8.78 per gallon, Premium gasoline was at $9.89 per gallon and Diesel was at $8.74 per gallon.
But those figures are now only just a memory because the price of gas has skyrocketed with the most recent figures coming in at $12.73 a gallon for Premium, $12.28 a gallon for Regular, and $11.56 per gallon of diesel.
It's a price hike that's causing a particularly difficult type of undue strain on the motoring public.
This Maskall resident says he's parked all three of his cars and started taking the bus.
Delroy Bennet - Pedestrian
"The prices are ridiculous. That's why I caught the bus. $4. $13 a gallon of gas I had to go, I mean $13 dollars a gallon you have to stop driving, sell your car to buy gas thank you."
And while that's the overarching sentiment the price of gas is currently a global problem:
Reporter
"Those energy prices are rising primarily because the wholesale cost of gas has gone up and that has happened because global gas supplies are down the main reason here, well that's the price of crude oil and that increase is being driven by demand from countries as they open up after Covid restrictions."
A global gas crisis but the gas pain its causing in Belize is deeper than most places - right now pump prices across the border in Melchor are about $3 to $4 cheaper than they are here.
And out in Belize City today we spoke to some of those hit hardest, the taxi men whose consumption of fuel is at the heart of the service they provide. This morning they staged a peaceful protest writing PUP GAS PAIN across the windows of their cars.
Joel Guttierez - Bus Terminal & Market Square Taxi Cooperative
"They have to understand that this is affecting everybody and it's affecting all colors not only one person, everybody, so they must come onboard and think about the people, how last week you will raise gas and then this week you'll raise it again come on, it's every week they import gas then or every month, we don't understand that because look like the people that are doing it aren't understanding it either and then we who feel the pinch we know the pain so only we know what we are going through and the people our passengers they don't even want to go where they're going anymore, they want to walk now, why because they can't afford the high prices of fuel."
Hubert Martinez - Bus Terminal & Market Square Taxi Cooperative
"The government of Belize is taking advantage in my view concerning this situation that has been offset by Covid and in that regard everybody is taking a lick, indeed it's sick, it's ridiculous, in my humble opinion, I rest my case."
Dale Bowen
"My vehicle is a four cylinder vehicle and at $12.10 a gallon for gas when I get my customers and I charge them sometimes they don't even want to give you the seven. We even can't go to $8 because then we will have no customers, so all that we are working for right now is the gas station."
And tough as it is for the taxi men they aren't the only ones feeling the pinch.
Interviewee
"It's rough you know, it's rough, it's rough because if you'd look around in the community and the country everybody is moving with a vehicle because that's a way to survive so at the end of the day if it's hard to survive and gas is already up, the food is going up, we need some kind of change mein, we need help. So, how do I feel about it, I feel like they're killing me with those prices there."
Gil Matus
"I'm working for my boss but where I can see it's really stifling because before we used to fill the gas tank every other four to five days. Now it's gone to a minimum of two to one and a half days so it's really killing us. Every two or other two days I have to come and refill my gas tank so it's ridiculous in a way and I wish someone in a high position would hear this out because we still we need to survive."
Interviewee
"Man I have my generator, I have this and that that I go to work with and so, I can't afford the gas. I'm a poor man, my pay is going down, everything at the store is rising so what happens to Belize directly now. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, that's what I can tell you."
It's a state of affairs that's left many hopeless and wondering what will become of their livelihoods, and it's not what was expected from a government who had condemned its predecessor for just these types of fuel over taxing.
Hon. John Briceno - Leader of Opposition
"He needs to reduce the tax by at least $2 so that we can keep the price of fuel under $10. At the very least that's what he needs to do but I will not believe him until I see that he has taken corrective action. This is unsustainable, this unacceptable because the burden that he is putting on the Belizean people is just way too much, we are at a breaking point and he needs to act and he needs to act as soon as possible. The government is overtaxing the Belizean people on fuel."
An apparently eternal truth - and all in all the sentiment about the cost of gas today may best be summed up in this impassioned plea.
Interviewee
"Mr. Briceno why do you keep raising the gas, gas, gas. You are the same one who told Mr. Barrow, drop the gas. I want to beg you now to drop the gas for us now, thank you."
The global price of crude oil is excepted to continue to rise.
We also expect that Kerosene and Diesel prices may go up shortly.
