Fuel duty cuts years away, says finance minister

| 16/09/2014

(CNS): The minister of finance and economics has said that any further duty cuts on fuel may be as much as three years away. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly on Friday in regard to a motion filed by the opposition leader asking government to cut the duty and give the Cayman people a break, Marco Archer said that government could not yet afford to reduce the duty any further than the cuts in this year’s budget. Although the minister said government wanted to bring down the current duty levels by some 45 cents to bolster the economy and reduce the burden on the community it was going to take two to three years to bring down the rates.

Archer said he had to remain prudent with the budget and the economy was simply not growing enough to justify further cuts and he wanted and was working on sustainable solutions to help people not cuts that would have to be increased again because government couldn’t balance the books.

He pointed to the help he was giving by cutting the duty on CUC bills in January which should result on a four percent drop in domestic and commercial bills as well as the reduction of almost all duty on retail goods for merchants. That 2% cut came into effect in July and government has promised to ensure that the cut works is way through to the public at the point of sale.

The minister also pointed to the introduction of a free trade and business license for micro Caymanians business to encourage people to set up home industries. He described a micro business as a commercial operation with four or less employees and an annual gross revenue of less that $250k.

Meanwhile, Archer saidthat small businesses could receive a 50% or 75% cut on license fees depending on their district location. He also said that the government has implemented an amnesty for any existing business owner who still owes trade and business licensing fees so they can reapply for government contracts.

“We won’t be chasing you for the money,” he promised as he responded to McKeeva Bush’s private member’s motion which was no accepted by the PPM government bench.
 

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  1. Anonymous says:

    AGAIN the ppm broke a promise

    I remember VERY WELL when i was told by PPM members at a Bodden Town meeting..shouting from the podium :

    " Vote for us and you will see 4 $ per gallon on gasoline "

    we have been lied to !!!  Shame on ppm !!!

    now you gonna sell all our assets ???????????

    WFT ?

    • Anonymous says:

      Again the PPM broke their promiss .  The best thing we can do on this issue is to tell them politians next election , we broke our promiss to vote for you , then you will have wait 4 more years or more before i have the heart to vote for you again .     When you vote for a politian you are voteing for them to repersent the  people and the country / district  , NOT themself or their campain contributor .

  2. Anonymous says:

    None of you get it . Until cayman has a larger population everything will be expensive

    let me tell you a story recently i went to a  resort the cost was  $49 per person all included there were 1000 peole staying there thus the resort took in 49,000 per day the expenses were 40000 per day to run the resort thus a profit of 9000 per day.

    now suppose there were only 800 people at the resort  the resort would loose just under 1000 per day  and this is the problem with Cayman.

    If the water company or CUC or fosters for that matter had more customers prices would go down for everyone.

    the good ship cayman costs about 2.5 million per day to run the Government this cost is covered by lets say 50k people. the only way to lower each persons cost is to have more people.

    thus back to the resort story If the resort has 1300 people staying at it. It earns a profit of almost 25000 per day for not many more guests. The fixed cost for the  resort are the same.

    if the resort operator wanted they could lower the price they charge each person.and still make plenty of money  

    I know that if Cayman were to allow the population to increase to lets say 75000 people of quality costs for everyone would go down

  3. Anonymous says:

    Another broken campaign promise…Does anyone else feel bambosalled ?

  4. Anonymous says:

    From my calculations, even with government's $.75 cents duty, should be no more than $4.25 to $4.75 per gallon.  I challenge both wholesalers and retailers to be open with the public and show us their true cost and their markup.  Government should look at regulating them, don't you think?

  5. Anonymous says:

    and why isn't the economy growing marco????…..

    anything to to with this 'do nothing' administration we are stuck with maybe??????

  6. Anonymous says:

    Firstly I like the idea of small businesses at home, can you CNS please write an article on this informing us how we go about setting this up, right now I have 3 employees and pay a lot of rent per month, I could easily run my business from my home in prospect… And save this money, providing for my family and staff.

    now with regards to the fuel tax, this is a tax not CUCs charge, I completely agree with it and in fact at the pump we should be taxed more, pushing us to renewable energy. 

    I recall some months ago, adds in the paper about a solar plant for the island, possibly reducing our bills to around 10cents not the current 34cent cuc charges us.. Why has no politian addressed this or even looked into this? Why has the ERA not addressed this with cuc or other parties, hmmm let's see, conflict of interest maybe, pretty sure the two staff members in that dept worked for cuc and allegily have shares in cuc, of course they don't want a solar plant.

    i am looking at a solar plant for my home, it is extremely costly, plus the duty is rediculous, other countries offer incentives to people and decrease taxes if they do this.

    • Anonymous says:

      Solar is the way to go, unfortunately the government doesn’t want to listen to Mark Hennings ideas about a cayman solar plant, he has posted several adds in the paper claiming to reduce our electric bills by a massive amount and no one wants to listen to him. Hey at least he has an idea, if it’s no good why not respond to us (public) as to why?
      I can tell you why., there is nothing in it for their own pockets…..

    • Anonymous says:

      Caymanians residents need to remember that point CUC is government's appointed tax collector for CIG revenue ……..

       

      SO Until we demand proper use of government revenue, (eg cuts in civil service starting with contracted workers (administration, police etc) then Caymanians have to face the fact

       

      that we'll be sitting back, watching both parties keep giving out status especially to the persons already loyal to these parties and will keep votong for these MLAs becasue they will get the jobs and government will need the revenue so we're back to needing the tax from fuel because the MLAs/C4C /businesses are demanding an increase in population.

       

      It's a hot mess and Caymanians are scared to speak up and demand changes so expect mroe of this

      • anonymous says:

        Interesting view on things. Get rid of foreign police to reduce the tax from fuel.

        I am not sure if you are desperate to get fuel prices down in any way, shape or form or just eager to get your xenophobic point across.

        Either way, you haven't come out of this looking too sharp.

    • Anonymous says:

      Are you kidding me?  Since when is CNS responsible for teaching you how to run a home business? Typical Caymanian, I want something, but someone else has to do it for me. 

      How about you do your own research, or go to see the organization here in Cayman that is responsible for assisting small business.  Nope, sorry, not going to give you the name, you have a business, you should be able to figure it out.

      P.S. I'm a Caymanian with a very sucessful small business.  And no, I didn't ask CNS or anyone else for that matter, to do my research for me. 

  7. Peter Milburn says:

    Still puzzles me how the average gas price in the USA is around US$3.45 per gallon(US gallon)oil prices have dropped(but will more than likely spike again with all this ISIS stuff)but if anything we have gone up a couple more cents here.WT hell?

     

  8. 4Cayman says:

    Surely you and the rest off the ppm government wasnt singing this before the general election? You made a commitment to drop the duty on fuel and that's what the voting public should get. To hear of the now opposition requesting the reduction on duties, only now show how this party politics is screwing the small man! Also what reduction? Bread and milk costs more than last year? then again the spineless supermarkets and hardware stores are not passing on the reduced duties so they are only getting richer!!!! Who polices this?

  9. Anonymous says:

    These guys just don't get it..Guess no one in there family has to suffer so why should they care…

    No more voting PPM for me..

     

  10. Anonymous says:

    my god more years of hunger to feed the beast of cuc

    • Anonymous says:

      If you really were hungry then get the bus.  You need to look at your melodrama problem.

      • Anonymous says:

        I think you have business with CUC and get a check from them every year jejeje

    • Anonymous says:

      It is so bad that you have given up on punctuation in protest.

    • Anonymous says:

      You are not feeding CUC as the fuel costs on the CUC bill is paid to the fuel companies.

  11. Anonymous says:

    And why can't they afford it? Who knows because they won't show us their accounts….

    • Anonymous says:

      Another campaign lie from marco and ppm we need help now

    • Anonymous says:

      They would not be able to pay all those consultants for unnecessary reports, which will be used as dust collectors, if they cut the duty now.

  12. Anonymous says:

    If that 2% cut came in July, I must have missed it!! Even after being away on holiday in July and not changing my pervious conservation habits, my CUC bill inceased by $100. 

  13. Anonymous says:

    How can we wait 3 years?

    Can someone please request an FOI on how many people (Caymanians) are disconnected from CUC and water because they havent paid their bills. This fee reduction/cut has to be implemented ASAP not 3 years. We cannot continue to suffer and live in the conditions that we are today. Government  needs to cut duty on fuel NOW!!!! 

    I would like to know where the cut was in July? i went away for 10 days during that period, cut of my ac, had no one in my house, and my bill went up $300.00.

    I am asking that government make this a priority now and not in 2017 when election comes around the corner.  

    The supposed 4% in January 2015 will not be a true reduction because CUC is raising the rates now to offset the decrease.

    As far as the free trade and business license, i hope your business is outdoors because you wont be able to pay the cuc bill.               

      

    • Anonymous says:

      Agree with you 10:25.

      My bill went up too also know friends and family whose did by a few hundred each.  This is absolutely crazy, how on earth you could be off island for 2 weeks with AC turned off and get a bill increase of hundreds?!

      We need to all unite and boycott them even if just for a few days, or an entire weekend. No other country in the world has to pay so much on electricity bills. It is akin to paying a second mortgage, something needs to be done now, not in 3 years! 

      Yet another lame excuse, hopefully many people will consider not voting the same govenrment waiting for change that will never come.  We need a coalition of individuals in government, who are ALL willing to stand firm and do what is best for this country. No matter who they are friends with.

      Such a sad state of affairs. 

      • Anonymous says:

        Did you compare the actual consumption figure on the bills you are comparing? Not the $ amount. Each bill contains all the details.

        I went on vacation same as you and my usage & dollar amount went down quite a lot. Then again my payment amount for a house with about 2500 sq. ft. of air conditioned space is a lot less than I read other folks saying. Average $350.

        • Anonymous says:

          it doesnt matter what the consumption is, what matters is we still have to find the the money to pay the bill. 

    • anon says:

      yes info only on Caymanians, because who cares if an expat has his power disconnected

      • Fred the Piemaker says:

        I think the poster meant that only Caymanians are people, so you dont need to consider the expats. 

        • Anonymous says:

          when the shit hits the fan it will only be Caymanians left  here.  

    • Anonymous says:

      Is there a reason why YOU can't make the FOI request yourself?  I have seen so many posters on here, outraged about one thing or the other, usually with good reason, calling on CNS or the proverbial 'someone' to make an FOI request. 

      Typical Caymanian attitude, all up in arms about something or the other, but very very few, will actually take action and DO anything.

      Get up and DO something and quit waiting for someone else to do it for you.

       

  14. Anonymous says:

    Surely any fuel duty cut would be inconsistent with a meangingful commitment to the environment.  Given how cheap fuel is in the Cayman Islands, a better way forward would be a substantial green levy.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Arch doesn't get it. As the world population increases, the demand for oil/fuels will increase while their supplies diminish more & more. prices will rise overtime…