Leader of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) Bernard Hurtault says his party is deeply disappointed with the current situation facing the fuel sector on the island.
Last week, an impasse with the government and the Dominica Fuel Retailers Association resulted in the shutdown of fuel pumps on the island for a few days.
In a release, the DFP states that by controlling both the retail price and profit margin the government has placed the fuel sector in an “iron box” where profitable operations are precarious.
“Pandemic driven volume decreases, along with wage increases, have pushed these companies to protest that their formerly precarious position is now untenable. The government is therefore being asked to re-structure conditions so that these companies can continue to offer effective service,” the DFP which once held the reigns of power in Dominica (1980-1995 stated.)
The DFP says this move is “not a new concept.”
“Governments around the world have stepped in with plans and packages to ensure the survival of critical sectors in times of economic crisis. But the current government shows a level of inflexibility on this issue that is revealing,” the DFP said.
According to the party, by failing to grow the economy over the past decades, the government is desperately dependent on every penny from taxes imposed on the fuel sector. “It is therefore highly resistant to pursuing reasonable and rational reform proposals. This economic development failure results in a heavy tax burden everywhere – not just in the fuel sector”.
Value Added Tax (VAT), port charges, surcharges, and a host of other taxes on goods and services push the island’s cost of living sky-high. But if only the government could expand the economic pie, then the tax base would broaden resulting in increased revenues – even as individual tax burdens are reduced,” the DFP posited.
The DFP says that it is this government’s (Dominica Labor Party-DLP) economic development failures then that are most revealed by this fuel crisis.
“We must not miss that big picture amid all the noise. The Dominica Freedom Party, therefore, calls on the government to pursue authentic, innovative development and to abandon hand-out economics. If we fail to do so, this fuel sector stalemate will be only the canary in the coalmine signaling other heartbreaking crises ahead,” the DFP states.