IBON: Fuel prices should be lower by over P4/liter

MANILA, Philippines - Unimpressed with the latest P1-per-liter rollback in fuel prices, a militant think tank claimed Tuesday that diesel and gas prices should be P4 lower than the current rates. IBON Foundation said the P1 rollback is not enough and does not reflect price movements in the global market. "At the very least, diesel and regular gasoline pump prices should be P4.20 lower per liter and regular gasoline P4.50 lower," it said in an article on its Web site. IBON said that as of April 10, a barrel of Dubai crude was $51.19 while the forex rate was P48.03:$1 - meaning Dubai crude costs P2,458 per barrel. It said the last time Dubai crude cost around that much was in March 2005 when it was P2,481 per barrel (Dubai crude costing $45.58 with forex rate of P54.44). At the time, it noted, the average monthly pump price of diesel was P25.42 and of regular gasoline P28.26. But it said that as of April 3, diesel was priced at an average of P29.61 per liter and regular gasoline at P32.73 per liter. "Oil firms should then explain why the current pump prices cannot be brought down at least to March 2005 levels, which actually already included super-profits made at the time. It should be noted that IBON’s overpricing estimates do not even take into account profits made from monopoly pricing," the group said. Oil firms appear to be taking advantage of volatile oil prices to pad their prices, since they are not lowering pump prices in line with global oil price and foreign exchange rate movements, it said. Dubai crude prices peaked at almost $140 per barrel in July 2008 and then fell to around $37 per barrel in January 2009. "Although prices have since the start of the year again begun to rise, global crude oil prices are still less than four-tenths their price from heights in mid-2008," it said. IBON stressed that industry players have long been using the oil deregulation law as a cover for their super-profits, adding that the Supreme Court should review its recent decision upholding the constitutionality of the said law. "The overpricing of oil products aggravates the effects of frequent oil price increases on people’s livelihood, viability of small businesses, and overall growth of the local economy especially in the face of worsening economic crisis," it said. - GMANews.TV