What has been described as an “unfortunate bureaucratic mix up” by Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves caused personnel at some service stations to be subjected to abuse and complaints by customers last Monday, November 17.{{more}}

On Thursday, November 13, in Parliament, Dr Gonsalves announced that fuel prices would have been reduced by one dollar from Monday November 17th from $14.00 and $14.33 for Diesel and Gasoline to $13.00 and $13.33 respectively.

However when customers went to service stations on Monday morning they found that the price at the pumps had not been changed, sparking confrontations and angry outbursts from them.

“SOL has received complaints from its Service Station retailers that they were subject to abuse at the stations, and via the electronic media by callers on some radio programmes regarding what was perceived to be late changes in the prices at the pumps,” a release by SOL EC Limited states.

According to SOL, they only received notification of the new prices by fax at around 2:10 p.m. on Monday, and the prices couldn’t be changed by their technical team until that notification had been received.

During a public budget consultation on radio on Monday night, the Prime Minister apologized for the mix-up.

He said that something went wrong with the process which should have seen the Attorney General getting a copy of the gazzetted instrument, which would then go to the Ministry of Trade.

The Ministry of Trade is charged with the responsibility to inform the suppliers of the change in the retail price of the price-controlled commodity.

In this instance, as was mentioned before, the word did not get to the suppliers before their stations opened, so the old prices stood. (KJ)