By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

CONSUMERS should expect to pay an additional $1 to $3 per week at gas stations when profit margin increases for retailers take effect, according to the Bahamas Petroleum Retailers Association President Raymond Jones.

However, he said prices, which have declined recently, could decline even further depending on global fuel costs, which are on a downward trend.

“If someone is spending about $20 a week on fuel, it’s going to cost them an extra dollar a week,” he said at a press conference yesterday. “For someone that’s spending about $50 a week, maybe $2.25.”

“Our data shows with the projected continued decrease in the price of fuel, a consumer might end up in over a period of a month or two, seeing maybe only a 50 cents or 60 cents increase in the cost.”

His comments came after Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis announced that his administration approved a margin increase for gas retailers — 25 cents per gallon for gasoline and 15 cents per gallon for diesel.

The decision comes after a three-year push by petroleum retailers, who said they could no longer operate under the fixed-margin regime due to rising costs.

Unlike other industries, where prices can be adjusted to cover increasing expenses, the petroleum sector operates under government-controlled price margins that require approval for any changes.

Mr Jones praised the government’s decision to approve the margin increase, saying it will help retailers get back on track.

“Although we didn’t want to wait so long because we’ve been hurting with all the rising prices, the point is for the motoring public, we’ve seen a marked decrease in the price of fuel, and this small increase that we got is sufficient to keep us back on track and is actually insignificant in the cost to the motoring public,” he said.

Vasco Bastian, BPRA’s vice president, added: “This is a happy day. We rejoice in it. We celebrate it. This is just the beginning of things that we have planned as an association to reform this country when it comes to the petroleum industry.”

Retailers expect the new rates to take effect in October.

Mr Davis called the increase “manageable”, saying it shouldn’t seriously impact Bahamians.

“It is manageable when we look at first of all how our gas prices have declined over the last year and continue to decline, and we expect that gas prices will continue decline through to at least December of this year,” he said.

Bernard “Porky” Dorsett, owner of Porky’s Rubis Service Centre, said the timing of the increase is perfect due to the current downward trend in fuel prices.

“We don’t control the market,” he added. “I mean somebody start a war somewhere and we’ll probably be back to $7 again so let’s hope that don’t happen. The public really won’t feel the load of this. It’s like a bag of peanut at the end of the day.”

Planned protests scheduled for today were cancelled as a result of Mr Davis’ announcement.

As of yesterday, gas prices in New Providence were $5.45 per gallon at Rubis, $5.61 per gallon at Shell and $5.35 per gallon at Esso.