The Ministry of Labour and Social Development has announced that the government has granted a 10c margin increase on gasoline and 15c increase on diesel to Petroleum Retailers with effect from 12th October.
This is the first margin increase in gasoline in 10 years for retailers and 30 years for diesel. The increase comes at time of decreasing petroleum prices. Oil prices on the international market continue to drop.
A statement released by the Ministry of Labour and Social Development said: “This change in the margin will result in a ten cent per gallon increase in the retail price of gasoline and a fifteen cent increase in the retail price of diesel. These changes will take effect Wednesday, 12 October 2011.”
At the pump in the last week, there was a decrease of $0.44 cents per gallon for gasoline at Esso and Texaco was granted a 0.57c per gallon decrease. The result is a net decrease of 34-47 cents to consumers.
Petroleum Retailers had requested significantly more in their margin increase proposal but given the prevailing economic conditions and the environment of falling petroleum prices, the government consider the timing and amount of the margin increase to be reasonable.
