PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said that the protest action on Tuesday by the opposition United National Congress (UNC) against increased fuel prices was intended to “create destruction and mayhem.
“Everyone has a right to protest, but of course, to disrupt the society and burning tires….can amount to serious wrongdoing,” Hinds said, noting that the protest action had been led by “people well known to the society.”
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar said she intends to raise the government’s recent announcement of an increase in fuel prices as a matter of urgent public importance in Parliament on Wednesday.
The one dollar (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) per liter increase in fuel prices went into effect as of midnight on Monday and Persad Bissessar, in Debe, south of here, said she would raise the matter as well as the crime situation in the Parliament.
“This is the fourth time this corrupt, incompetent government is putting increases on your head. We are protesting against the increasing food prices and cost of living,’ she said, adding, “this past weekend has been a most murderous one, mayhem, and crime—thirteen and counting. So we are protesting about skyrocketing crime”.
When the Parliament meets on Wednesday, she said, “we shall be raising as matters of urgent public importance, the hike in the fuel prices, and we will also be raising the increasing skyrocketing in crime and no policies or programs.”
Opposition legislator Dr. Roodal Moonilal told the UNC supporters that the increase in fuel prices would have a multiplier effect and “everything will go up because of the price increase.
“This is a direct result of the closure of the refinery..so we now have to import with scarce foreign exchange fuel to be used in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said, an indirect reference to the government’s decision to close down the loss-making oil refinery of the state-owned PETROTRIN company two years ago.
Last week, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced an increase in fuel prices even as it acknowledged that it is cognizant of its effect on consumers.
Imbert told Parliament that the adjustments in fuel prices were being made based on factors such as the effect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on international oil prices.
“The government is cognizant of the effect of an increase in fuel price on consumers, although a fuel subsidy is a regressive measure.
As a result, the premium and super gasoline prices will be adjusted by one Trinidad and Tobago dollar (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) per liter to TT$6.75 and TT$5.97, respectively. In contrast, 0.50 cents per liter will adjust the diesel price to TT$3.91 per liter.
The government said the cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) would remain fixed at TT$21 for a 20-pound cylinder of cooking gas for domestic customers. At the same time, the price of kerosene will be adjusted to TT$3.50 per liter, which is little over half the actual market price.
Hinds said the protest had been undertaken to coincide with the return to school by students following a two-year disruption due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the long Easter weekend.
He said the protest failed and was a guise for disrupting society.
“The report that has since come to me is that those plans… they flopped in the sense that the right-thinking citizens in the country recognizing that all might not be perfect, there might be challenges (but) that is certainly not the way to do it and that’s only counter-productive as it is and makes the situation for all of us worse and the citizens generally did not participate,” he added.
Meanwhile, acting Commissioner of Police, McDonald Jacob, said the opposition party did not apply for permission to stage the protests. However, he said the protests were peaceful; there was no marching and no public meeting, so the police did not stop them.
Jacob told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper all persons, regardless of their position, must obey the law and do the right thing.
“We may be sending a wrong message to other persons who may consider us as exemplars in society,” Jacob said, urging people planning such events to inform the police for their safety and protection.
“Because there may be rival groups who are opposed to what they are doing and the Summary Offences Act caters for that to prevent any sort of any untoward situation that may occur and that is why they said to apply to the police so that the police will be aware and can provide the necessary security.”
Apart from the UNC, the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) has announced plans to stage a rally against the price increase and urges the government to rescind the new policy.
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