Skelton Cline demands controls on fuel prices

Social and political commentator Claude Skelton Cline has called for fuel price controls in the BVI, questioning why petrol stations increase prices before selling fuel they bought at a lower price. Skelton Cline urged authorities to monitor fuel purchases, storage and retail price changes to protect consumers. “There should be regulations in place,” Skelton Cline said on his Honestly Speaking show last week. He put the price of regular petrol in the BVI at $5. 15 and compared it with $5. 25 in St Thomas. His criticism centred on how retailers price fuel already in their tanks when the cost of new supplies changes. “And when the price changes every day, they’re changing the price for gas at the pump,” Skelton Cline stated.

He argued that adding newly purchased fuel to existing stocks should not automatically justify increasing the price of supplies bought more cheaply. He questioned the practice of adjusting prices on the basis that fuel costs had changed that morning. Skelton Cline pointed to what he described as a monitoring system in the US Virgin Islands, where authorities track purchases and assess whether subsequent price increases correspond with the fuel being sold. According to his account, that oversight considers the timing, date and quantity of deliveries, including when retailers add new supplies to storage tanks. He argued that such checks help prevent customers from being disadvantaged. He also linked his concerns to the government’s handling of the proposed Trade Commission, blaming the administration for allowing the then deputy premier to…