Tuesday, June 12 2012

FOR the first six months of the 2012 fiscal year fuel subsidy was running at about $1.8 billion. Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine made this disclosure yesterday as he announced the ministry will soon introduce a special dye marker into subsidised diesel to crack down on fuel smuggling . He said the marker will be placed in diesel that is loaded at Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre refinery and a new bond which National Petroleum (NP) is building in Caroni.

Speaking with reporters following the opening of the energy conference hosted by the Society of Petroleum Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, Ramnarine said while the level of the overall subsidy remains significant, “we were able to reduce the subsidy claims for diesel by 20 percent for the first six months of the fiscal year 2012.”

He explained the decrease in the demand for diesel was offset by an increase in price internationally. “From a monetary point of view there has been no impact really,” Ramnarine said.