PHILIPSBURG--Consumers should not be feeling the squeeze in the fluctuation in the fuel clause. Prime Minister Dr Luc Mercelina told reporters on Wednesday last that utilities company GEBE will be absorbing this cost.
He made the remarks during the live Council of Ministers press briefing in response to a question.
“We, as a people in St Maarten, will have to have a government that is going to bring back the trust of the people that they really believe and accept what government is telling them and that is what I think the task of this government [is]," Mercelina said. “And I said it in the past already, I made a deal, we made a deal as a government with GEBE that they are going to absorb the fluctuation in the fuel clause and it will remain like that.”
He said GEBE had reconfirmed this in a recent meeting.
“Recently I had a meeting with GEBE again. We touched base on it and I got a guarantee as they have committed initially that they are going to – that GEBE will absorb the fluctuations of the fuel clause and that means that the consumers will not have to contribute to a relative elevation in the fuel clause because of the use of diesel in this case that is a little more expensive.
“But I think, at a sudden moment, if we say something, we have to commit to what we tell and inform the people and I have to stand and reiterate that this trust has to come back in our government. What we say to the people is something we [should] adhere to without politics being played with it,” Mercelina said.
