We also asked Prime Minister Briceno about the soaring gas prices that his Government is currently implementing. We've shown you how he used to harshly criticize his predecessor when he was Leader of the Opposition. He demanded that Prime Minister Barrow reduce the tax take that makes up the full price that you pay at the gas station. So, why isn't he following his own advice? The press challenged him on that:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We have said and we stand by that we want to keep the price of diesel at more than $9, because that is what the productive sector use and we want to do that and we expect to do that in time to come, but remember when we took over the government, the government was bankrupt, we had no money. Fuel brings in approximately 150 million dollars of revenues to the government a year. Thats the largest revenue earner of the government. For every 10 cents that we take off out of the tax, we lose 3 million dollars. So, if I go to the Belizean people and say okey we will take off 10 cents..."
Reporter
"We've heard this and the economy is improving. You need to tell us something new."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It is important for me to repeat this: remember the previous government use to give the recitals of everything we had done - it's important for me to explain why we are where we are today. I am telling you that fuel continues to be the largest revenue earner, I'm telling you that we still remain committed to reduce it to cap diesel no more than $9. That has not changed, but I also need to explain that every 10 cents that we take off from fuel, we are going to lose 3 million dollars in taxes, so if we remove a dollar, that means 30 million dollars in taxes are going to be lost and if we lose those 30 million dollars in taxes, we need to get it somewhere else. Where are we going to raise taxes? We have not raised taxes; we have not raised the taxes on fuel since we came into government. That means that the price of fuel in one year, the acquisition cost has gone up approximately $3.40 in one year. In December when it went down, it did not go down because we took off anything on the tax, we did not. We can't do that. To do that we have to come to the house to make an amendment to the tax rate to reduce that."
"What happen is that the acquisition cost went down. Right now, because of the severe storms and winter that the United States is having, the price of fuel goes up, the demand goes up, so the price goes up and then we poor Belize are suffering the consequences. Now what is it that we are doing? At the moment I have ask the ministry of finance to prepare a report. I will take it to the cabinet for us to discuss, because I do believe and I feel with Belizeans that on the price of fuel that it is too high. I am in that business. My brother and I, we own 2 service stations, so we hear it from people every day, so of course we want to reduce the price, but when we do that, we have to do it responsibly."
