So with these sharp increases, some regular commuters are saying they just won't be able to shuttle between work and home anymore.
To understand the broader economic implications, we consulted economist Phillip Castillo. He explained that due to the uncontrollable increase in the global price of oil, GOB is walking a thin line with few options. However, he did have one recommendation. He spoke with us via Zoom.
Phillip Castillo, Economist
"The increase has been approved and what you will see, you will see commuting becomes more expensive. That means the average person on the street is feeling it, the average worker is feeling it because a larger percentage of his wages are now going into commuting and then you expect that these costs will play out throughout the economy in ways that we are not yet sure of because there are instances when prices may rise and we just do not know yet, we just have to wait and see how this increase plays out through the economy."
"Due to international event outside of Belize's control, the price of fuel has been going up. There's very little that government can do about that. What persons say government can do is to reduce its tax intake but then that put government between a rock and a hard place because government substantially depends on fuel to fund its operations. So what is happening then is that government needs to thread a very thin line between raising revenues that it needs from fuel and then keeping cost of fuel low and manageable to the average Belizean."
"As an economist what I would recommend is that government institute a surcharge on fuel meaning that whatever bus prices we are playing, those prices must have been predicated on fuel being a certain price, on the acquisition cost of fuel being a certain price. Government has absolutely no control on the acquisition price of fuel so what a surcharge would do is that if the price goes up, then the price of fuel, the price of the bus ticket, the price of transportation because automatically adjusted upwards and then if the price of fuel comes down the bus prices becomes automatically adjusted downwards. It's something I would have to think more about but what that would do, that would put in the minds of consumers that upward prices are not a permanent fixture, that there's a possibility that prices can come down."
