A new ‘BILL’ was introduced in the House Of Representatives’ on Tuesday, October 26th. that will impact the supply of LPG (which is mostly used a cooking gas / butane).
The ‘BILL’ will remove the monopoly of LPG from NGCL, the ‘National Gas Company Ltd.’ company the was championed by the previous government, and started operations in May 2020.
NGCL became the sole supplier of natural gas to Belize and has storage and distribution in Blue Creek in the Stann Creek District and another facility in the Orange Walk District.
That will change once the new ‘BILL’ is approved and all the previous suppliers, such as GAS TOMZA, BEWELL and others will re-enter the supply chain. There will also be new licensing requirements to be an importer or a distributer of LPG.
This chart below: supplied by a UDP supporter shows the price of several fuel products comparison from 12 months ago
In the past 12 months the cost of several fuel products have increased, in some cases by as much as 47%. The reasoning is unclear, and consumers are expecting that the change from the monopoly by NGCL should result in better pricing of Butane.
The government says that the ‘BILL’ will also help to avoid lawsuits that were filed against the government by previous suppliers before the NGCL sole supplier structure that was created by the previous administration.
Written & Compiled by: digitalBelize,LIVE Staff writer – digitalCaribbean.live – Wed, October 27th. 2021 – digitalbelize@gmail.com