UPP leader gives Gaston Browne a ‘U’ as in unconscionable for the recent gas price hike

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Residents in Antigua and Barbuda woke up on June 13, to a whopping increase in what they pay at the pumps for gasoline and diesel.

The announcement of $17.50 per gallon represents a total increase of 40 percent in just three months.

The announcement came via the lips of Prime Minister Gaston Browne, on Saturday, during his weekly radio programme.

“It was designed to shock an already “cash-strapped” populace that continues to feel the squeeze at the pump as gas prices hit record levels. Three months ago residents were asked to pay $15.70 per gallon for gasoline – an increase of 25 percent. The new price of $17.50 represents an astronomical 40 percent increase in the price of gasoline since March of this year,” noted Harold Lovell, UPP Political Leader.

“The Prime Minister blamed the increase on the war in Ukraine. However, it is noted that the price of oil on the world market today is no higher than it was in March, when the war began. In fact, the price of fuel has been fluctuating, hovering around $120 per barrel,” Lovell continues.

UPP Political Leader condemns this huge price increase as unconscionable. He notes that since taking office, the Gaston Browne administration has not used the “pass through” mechanism, to pass on the savings to consumers when oil prices are low, unlike other countries.

A case in point: In February of 2015 when the price of a barrel of oil fell to as low as $42, Antiguans and Barbudans continued to pay $13.50 per gallon.

In fact, from 2016 to the present, the ABLP government has not responded to price fluctuations and has raked in by way of consumption tax, $466 million dollars.

The highest yield was in 2016, when gas prices were at an all-time low and $80 million was generated in consumption tax.

Despite the pandemic, in 2020 more than $79 million was collected and in 2021, the yield was $60 million dollars.

In contrast, the UPP utilized the “pass through” approach and the highest yield ever generated under the UPP, was $45 million dollars in 2010, when oil prices on the world market were at the highest.

The Political Leader also takes issue with the lack of respect displayed in relaying the information about the fuel increase.

“Instead of convening a formal briefing on a business day, the information was read on the ABLP’s mouthpiece Pointe FM. Information of this nature should be disseminated by way of a formal press release, first to the national station and then to all other media houses, not by way of a weekend talk show,” he states.’’

According to Lovell, just mentioning the price of gas makes drivers angry.

He is therefore calling on the Prime Minister Gaston Browne to rescind this burdensome increase at the pumps, as residents are already buckling under the weight of high prices in general and can ill-afford this increase.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. How ironic! Gas garn up and all vehicles on the road still. No vehicles park & no strikes…. Why? Its bcuz persons realize it’s a global phenomenon…….. People are waking up & smelling the real coffee. UPP needs to get their act together and take a back seat in our politics and stop chat political diarrhea

    • Because people are afraid of the insanity of Gaston Browne.

      He will fire dem as he fired the woman at Antigua Port Authority for striking. He is working on peoples fear.

      People are just bating their breath and waiting for the election and quietly will let the pen speak for them.

      VOTE DEM OUT…THE BLODDY JOKE AND THE USEFUL IDIOTS. YOU GUYS HAVE NO PITY FOR POOR PEOPLE, JUST ALL A BUNCH OF SELF-ENRICHERS. GO NOW, PLEASE.

    • @Bluddy Bloke. Well I must be hallucinating then because yesterday IMO the traffic appeared to be roughly half to 75% the usual amount of vehicles. This rather large price hike will drive inflation and people will have an even more difficult time paying for the necessities to survive. To be repetitive if the “high living and jet setting” “stealing” “all about self” and “self-enrichment” would STOP it is almost guaranteed that the treasury would not be empty!

  3. Yahoo News June 13, 2022

    Everybody’s frustrated. If somebody could do something about it, it would be done. But oil and gasoline prices are on a tear that for the time being seems unstoppable.

    U.S. gasoline prices have hit $5 per gallon for the first time ever, and Moody’s Analytics thinks they could hit $5.50 within a couple of weeks. There’s no mystery why. A confluence of forces, led by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has crimped oil supply and bumped up demand. There’s more that could go wrong, adding a “fear premium” to prices on top of the hike caused by market dynamics. It won’t last forever, but for now there’s no sign that new supply, reduced demand or an outbreak of stability will bring relief.

    Four things are going wrong simultaneously for fossil-fuel purchasers. First are sanctions on Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer. So far, sanctions have slightly reduced Russian oil sales, but Europe is phasing in an embargo, with plans to cut Russian oil purchases 90% by the end of the year. Russia will probably be able to sell some of that oil elsewhere, but exports will probably decline, reducing world supply and pushing prices upward. Since oil prices are set in a global market, no nation can insulate itself from the effect falling supply or rising demand has on prices.

    President Biden is reportedly agonizing over sky-high energy prices that threaten to wreck his presidency. But it’s not a U.S.-centric problem, and there’s very little he can do. Biden, like many others, wants U.S. oil and gas producers to drill more. U.S. production is growing modestly and likely to hit a new record next year. But energy producers have been burned many times in boom and bust cycles, where prices rise, they drill more, then prices crash and they lose money.

    • @ just saying. I would suggest you take another look at Biden…he is senile and at this point does not appear capable of agonizing over anything more than what day it is and struggling to read his teleprompter without falling asleep. The first very stupid thing that Biden did was to sign an executive order to put a stop to the Keystone pipeline. The USA (and Canada) have more than enough oil to supply themselves and do not need Russia or Iran. Biden stopped all drilling on federal lands. His controllers want USA to go green (big money for them) but the problem is that the USA is not ready yet to go green…money is also being made by the privileged few on the excessively high oil prices. Biden’s presidency was a train wreck for the world from day one. Obama was recorded saying that Biden would “f*** *p” anything he was given to do. It would appear that Obama was absolutely correct! Perhaps if you watch 2000 mules you will see how it came about that senile Biden and his cackling VP got into the White House!

  4. During the economic meltdown, with the Stanford and CLICO collapse I didn’t hear too many people admit that it was a world crisis. All you hear is that UPP wreak the country. People must be fair!

    • when gas prices were low low low GASTON AND THE ABLP MILKED THE COUNTRY FOR HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CONSUMPTION TAX, SO NOW ITS HIGH IT IS TIME TO GIVE BACK.
      WHY ARE YOU USEFUL IDIOTS SO UNCONSCIONABLE!!!!

      U ALL DONT GIVE A DAM ABOUT POOR PEOPLE.
      JUST ROBBING THE POOR IN DEM HARD HARD TIMES WHEN PEOPLE CANT EVEN BUY FOOD. WICKED WICKED AND EVIL SET OF PEOPLE.
      PEOPLE HUNGRY. LORD PLEASE HELP US TO VOTE DEM OUT

  6. banks are foreclosing on poor people’s homes, houses are burning down flat because of no water and fire trucks, noodles and projected growth are our stimulus.
    How can one be satisfied with a gas increase at this time?

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