Fuel Fight Ignites: Government Pushback Meets Broaster’s Counterstrike

A political jab over fuel relief is heating up. Yesterday, we asked Transport Minister Dr. Louis Zabaneh about UDP caretaker Edward Broaster’s fuel relief move. He welcomed the gesture but fired back, saying one constituency giveaway can’t match the government’s duty to serve the entire country. Well, today Broaster responded. Here’s what he had to say.

 

Edward Broaster, UDP Caretaker, Belize Rural Central

“He’s challenging me to take it nationwide, and this is exactly what we want. We want the government, his government, to take it nationwide. They’re the one who has the power to reduce the fuel prices, right? They really don’t care about the people, ’cause if they care about the people, he won’t try to challenge me who don’t have the resources to do so nationwide. It’s the Prime Minister who has been boasting all this time that fuel can be reduced, and he has been raising fuel from 2020, 10 times in 2022, and many times after that. So he can afford to reduce the price. He can’t blame it on the war.”

 

Reporter

“[Zabaneh] He says that the government is already doing what it can to ease the fuel relief on its people.”

 

Edward Broaster

“The 68 [cents] reduction on excise tax that the prime minister spoke about is peanuts because you have excess environmental tax and the GST tax that is still there on the fuel, and that is giving the government the big bite from the fuel that the prime minister refused to touch.”

 

Speaking with News Five, Broaster admitted that the move is a “political gimmick” but says it’s one meant to push the government to action.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: