PARAMARIBO – “The gas station owners will neither go on strike nor close their gas stations,”  Guno Castelen, chairman of the Surinamese Gas Station Owners’ Association (SSEB), told Times of Suriname. “We will hold union meetings regularly to discuss the state decree on profit margins that must be passed. The state decree is needed to clearly determine how much of the profit margin is for the gas station owners. If and when we decide to close our gas stations again, we will inform the nation,” said Castelen.

 At Sunday’s union meeting the union officials were told that the oil companies had received a letter from the Ministry of Finance and Planning on August 6th. In the letter the government mentioned that the profit margin would be raised to $0.16 per litre of fuel. “That is not what we asked for. We have already received word that one of the oil companies is only willing to give the gas station owners and additional $0.05 which is not even a third of what they receive. There is a huge discrepancy and we as retailers and gas station owners do not get a fair treatment,” said Castelen. The union chairman criticized the government for the way it is handling things. “On August 5th we held negotiations with the government officials and they did not mention anything about their plans for a profit margin hike. On August 6th they sent a letter to the oil companies without mentioning the gas station owners in the letter. The SSEB is clearly being ignored,” said Castelen…[+]