Up to Thursday, unleaded gasoline was being sold at EC$10.50 per gallon at all gas stations.

Shell gas station at the corner of Victoria Road and Caton Street (Photo by Erasmus Williams)

The Ministry of Finance issued a news release Thursday informing the general public that with effect from Friday, December 1, the maximum retail price for unleaded gasoline at Delta Service Stations is $10.36 per gallon; at Shell Services Stations it is $10.34 per gallon and it is $10.08 per gallon at Texaco Service Stations.

Financial Secretary Janet Harris said recently that Government will have regulations in place to protect consumers by keeping the company and dealer margins fixed.

She said that the Consumer Affairs Department is going to be monitoring the prices. “The monitoring of what is happening at the pump would not be done by the Ministry of Finance. We would do the price build up and then you will have those price control officers in Consumer Affairs who would be going out to check to see when we submit this price build up to them for this time period that that is what is taking place in the market.”

Economist at the St Kitts-based Eastern Caribbean Central bank (ECCB) Leon Bullen said the sub-regional regional financial institution made a presentation to the ECCB Monetary Council last year with regard to the implementation of the new pricing mechanism for petroleum products in particular, gasoline and diesel in the member countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union – Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Montserrat, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

He said that a similar system is currently being used in three of the countries - Anguilla, Dominica and Montserrat – which are members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).

In Antigua and Barbuda, the price of unleaded gasoline decreased on Friday, December 1, from $11.89 per gallon to $11.49 per gallon.