Members of the Bahamas Propane Gas Retailers Association are calling for a meeting with Prime Minister Perry Christie, after dismissing Trade and Industry Leslie Miller’s latest statement on the price of cooking gas as a “disregard and disrespect for dealers.
The Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller announced on Tuesday that he had commissioned a full review of the Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) industry, which will not only look at the existing margins of the wholesalers and retailers, but also the safety, consumption and distribution of the products in New Providence and the Family Islands.
Now, association members are pushing for a meeting with Prime Minister Christie and have urged him to recognise that Mr. Minister and his ministry have failed.
“We need a more transparent and a more consistent pricing system,” said association spokesperson Peter Adderley. “The minister and his ministry have failed at that. It may be in the best interest of the country that the price control regulations be dropped.”
The response from the retailers association is the latest development in what has turned into a year-long row between Mr. Miller and LPG dealers.
Last week, the association dismissed a warning from Mr. Miller who said that if retailers did not reduce their $75 price to the government mandated $70, they could face a suspension of their licences.
The local dealers raised their price from $65 to $75 after the ministry published a notice that allowed cooking gas to be sold at $70 per 100-pound cylinder, effective November 24.
Association member companies – Island Gases, Moss Gas, Central Gas and Bahamas Gas – yesterday reiterated their intention to keep their prices at $75 because they claim that the new prices that were gazetted last month does not take into account the increased cost margins and actually translates into dealers operating at a loss.
In a statement released on December 13, Mr. Miller said that letters requesting full disclosures were dispatched to the wholesalers and a cross section of retailers, so that a proper analysis and justified margins can be implemented early next year.
“This action was necessitated as some retailers chose to circumvent the law by selling their products to retail customers at the higher bulk [per gallon] prices, instead of the gazetted price of $70 per 100 pound cylinder,” said Mr. Miller.
The minister is proposing that the new price structure be benchmarked against a standard pricing index – Mount Belvieu – to bring “true” transparency to the industry, and eliminate the unnecessary tensions between the dealers and the ministry that has been created in recent years.
“The most recent statement issued by Mr. Miller is a further indication of his disrespect and disregard for the hardworking and industrious in propane dealers in the country,” Mr. Adderley said yesterday during a press conference to respond to the minister.
Mr. Adderley said that around the same time last year dealers met with Mr. Miller and explained their plight in detail.
“And he promised, as he has done in this most recent release, to meet with them in the new year, a year later, the same strategy, the same disrespect, and the same disregard,” said Mr. Adderley.
Mr. Adderley said that the minister has no legal grounds of his claim that retailers are circumventing the law.
“(Dealers) are selling a 100 pound cylinder for $75 and they will continue to do so,” he said, adding that while the association would not stage a repeat of last year’s boycott, the price is well within the law and dealers have no intention of backing down.
By: Erica Wells, The Bahama Journal
