Can Residents Count on TCI Businesses to Pass on Savings? 

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, March 16, 2022 – Consumers will be largely dependent on the good graces of retail store owners, utility providers and fuel supplies to benefit from the $15 million dollar Food and Fuel Tax Break announced by the PNP Administration on Tuesday night.

It’s an historic move and monitoring whether the savings are wholly passed down to the marketplace is uncharted territory for the Turks and Caicos.  Never before has the country had a consumer protection arm but E. Jay Saunders, the Minister for Finance, Investment and Trade has promised that his team at the Department of Consumer Protection will conduct spot checks.

“We will have someone going in and checking; getting the baseline prices between now and April 1st and monitoring them straight through.” He said.

Saunders noted than on average, globally food prices have increased 2.5%. Those prices range from a drop in the cost of eggs by 0.5% to a considerable jump in the cost of seafood, at 4%.

When it comes to the price of oil by the barrel, the Finance Minister gave a comparative report:  in February 2020, oil by the barrel dipped to $55.66.  By February 2022 that cost climbed to $97.13 per barrel; a 75 per cent increase in two years.  By March this year, a barrel of oil rocketed to $120.00.

“We’re dropping the CPF on everything all items across the board so you should see savings in your cost of living immediately.”

Immediately in this context is April 1 2022, which is when the duty concession kicks in.

In terms of electricity Saunders said with the 2.5% savings households should automatically see a reduction in their electricity charges.

The concessions will last one year and the Minister sounded convinced that if there was a need to activate a stringent Price Control Unit, the Government would be willing to staff and mobilise that branch of the Consumer Protection Department.

“I would like to think people are good people.” He said in response to our questions on whether he trusted the commercial sector to be honest in their pricing going forward.

“And I would like to think that the suppliers will work along with the Government to pass the savings down on to the consumer very easily. So I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

The Government has given fuel suppliers especially two ways to cut costs on gas to the public.  As of April 1st the price at the pump for gas should be a minimum of 21 cents cheaper per gallon because of a drop in duty on both the fuel tax and Customs Processing Fee.

With fuel suppliers playing fair and passing on their savings from the drop in the CPF and the government’s agreement to take in less on the fuel tax, gas-buying consumers should see a significant change in prices at the pump.

If ‘good faith’ fails though, and price gouging is suspected, Deputy Premier Saunders said residents can access support at the Consumer Protection Department via email or a visit.