The OSPP has taken note of the media report coming from NV GEBE and the government of St. Maarten regarding the dropping of the prices of crude oil. It is very unfortunate that NV GEBE is hell bend on not providing the people of St. Maarten with relief to their fuel clause. Some seven months after the crude oil prices on the international market have been plummeting NV GEBE releases a statement that in my opinion does not hold water. From past experience when oil prices rose on the international market it certainly did not take seven months for the fuel clauses to go up, it happened instantly. An explanation was never given as to why it went up but it was accepted by the community that due to increases in crude oil on the international market, prices would rise. Therefore, NV GEBE explanation is just trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the people. It just doesn’t make any type of sense.
NV GEBE should not even mention the cost to get the product here to St. Maarten such as insurance, freight, marketing and other cost as a factor? These costs would remain the same if the price drops or increases. Who is the management of GEBE trying to fool with this explanation? What is GEBE trying to tell us that if you buy one liter of heavy fuel oil at $ 100.00 a liter and the additional cost is $20.00 landed in St. Maarten that if the price per liter drops by $ 50.00 this additional cost would increase all of sudden. Is GEBE saying that in spite of these major drops in the crude oil prices no changes have been reflected in the Eastern Caribbean Posting? Are we to understand from NV GEBE that the drop in crude oil prices on the international market has no bearing on the Eastern Caribbean Posting? What type of nonsense is management trying to sell the people of St. Maarten? Those additional costs will not increase or decrease because the price per liter drops. And there must be some type of fluctuation in the Eastern Caribbean Posting. “But if the additional cost to bring the product to St. Maarten will increase due to a price drop and if no fluctuation in the posting has been noticed by NV GEBE management then there is time for a new captain and crew on the bridge of the ship call NV GEBE” says Lenny Priest. Fuel prices are not determined by GEBE according to the press release. But everybody knows that. What we also know is that the fuel prices are calculated by GEBE with the blessing of our government. How is it possible that most every other Caribbean island and as a matter of fact the entire world is providing their citizens with relief but GEBE don’t see the necessity to reduce their fuel clause?
More and more you can see that the deck is stacked against the people of St. Maarten on all fronts. The fact that the government Press Secretariat has submitted this statement on behalf of NV GEBE is a clear indication that the Gumbs cabinet is not in favour of providing the people of St. Maarten with any type of relief. How can the Prime Minister talk about a people being together when he has a rare opportunity to improve on the quality of their lives and he bluntly refuses to do so?
Another factor that amazes me is that the opposition in parliament is just going along. They have had ample time to call the minister responsible for energy, NV GEBE management and the supervisory board to parliament to instruct them to reduce the fuel clause.
People of St. Maarten stand firm, in spite of all those beautiful New Year speeches from the elected officials you have one option left.
