The following is culled from FRROYAA BURNING NO: 88/2002 30 December 2002- 1 January, 2003 ---------------- Editorial Is The Fuel Crisis Over ? The Secretary of State for Finance indicated in his budget speech that petroleum prices would be increased as follows: Petrol from 10.50 to 15.00 dalsis; Diesel from 9.50 dalasis to 12 dalasis and Keresone/jet 5.50 dalasis to 7 dalasis. The government issued another press release to indicate that enough fuel has been imported to prevent future shortages. It was added that government will leave the companies to be in charge of the importation of fuel; that government will simply come up with a law to regulate the fuel sector. One expected that after the announcement there will be no queue for petrol or empty petrol stations. Unfortunately, cars still pass many petrol stations without driving in to purchase petrol because of the unwritten warning "No petrol for sale". Something is wrong somewhere. The government should not issue any press release without reaching concrete agreement with the companies trading in fuel. The government should accept and make known the policies it has agreed with the IMF and World Bank regarding the liberalisation of the trade. It should not pretend to be in control of what it has no control over. It should come out boldly and tell the people it has adopted policies, which makes it impossible for it to have any control over prices. There is no need to pretend that it wants to control prices while the private sector is engaged in a conspiracy to increase prices. The government cannot preach that the private sector is the engine of growth and then accuse them of trying to wreck the country by increasing prices. This only breed more uncertainty. The government should tell the people the solution it has for the present state of the economy and stop putting the blame on foreigners or lack of patriotism. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: FOROYAA (Freedom) NO: 88/2002 30 December 2002- 1 January, 2003 ISSN: 0796- 08573 Address: FOROYAA, P.O.Box 2306, Serrekunda, The Gambia, West Africa Telephone: (220) 393177 Fax: (220) 393177 Email address: [log in to unmask] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~