Are people benefiting from lower fuel costs?

​The Opposition is calling on the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) to conduct a survey on the price of goods and services to ascertain if people are benefitting from the decrease in global oil price.

Opposition leader Don Polye said the ICCC must plan to create a win-win situation for the seller and the buyer within the context of current economic challenges.

He said the ICCC needs to upgrade their programs and introduce a new strategy to prescribe minimum (standardised) pricing for oil (fuel, gas) related trade in PNG. 

“The ICCC should not lay back and play a “wait and see” role as the determinants for world oil prices are clear which show that the oil price will not come up beyond US$50 per barrel quickly for the medium term. 

“That means, for instance, for the next 5 years the ICCC should stipulate what the range of fuel price should be at the bowser.”

However, ICCC said they have urged business houses to pass on some of their lower operating costs to consumers since last year.

Commissioner and CEO of ICCC Paulus Ain said the fall in domestic retail prices has benefited business houses and general fuel consumers.

“As fuel is one of the major inputs in the production and provision of goods and services, businesses and industries that use a lot of fuel in their operations have incurred lower operating costs as a result,” Ain said.

He said the lower fuel prices and thus lower overheads must eventually translate to lower prices of some goods and services. 

He added that it was a concern that instead of translating some of their lower operating costs to lower retail prices, business houses had been taking advantage of the drop in fuel prices to make excess profits.

Author: 
Freddy Mou