Officials of companies that own and operate Guam’s 76 gas stations, and Shell gas stations wrote to senators that if the legislature cuts the gas tax, the price of gas will go down.
The written testimonies from South Pacific Petroleum Company (SPPC runs Guam’s 76 gas stations) and from IP&E (Shell) were made in favor of two bills by Speaker Therese Terlaje that will lower the cost of gas on island. Her Bill No. 260 will repeal a 4-cents liquid fuel tax increase enacted in 2017. Her Bill No. 261 will eliminate the liquid fuel tax altogether. According to her staff, the elimination of the gas tax will get rid of 23 cents of the cost per gallon of regular and premium unleaded gasoline.
The reduction in the gas tax, “would be passed onto the consumer,” SPPC CEO Douglas Dean wrote to senators.
“We support the proposed legislation which will reduce the liquid fuel tax in Guam and have the net effect to reduce costs for Guam consumers,” IP&E general counsel Steven Carrara wrote to senators.
Senators heard public testimony on the bills Thursday afternoon.
Despite the clear signal from two of Guam’s three gas providers that the proposed tax cut would be passed on to consumers, officials from the governor’s administration came out in full force against the measure.
1 Comments
J Herndon
04/07/2022 at 4:03 PM
That’s great that 76 and Shell will lower prices if gas tax is reduced or goes away. Mobil will probably follow them. But as long as they are committing to good corporate citizenship, how about they stop selling the brands of alcohol and cigarettes they get from the distributors who are not paying their taxes? If enough honest businesses say they refuse to do business with the dishonest businesses maybe there will be some change. Lord know the government isn’t going to do anything to fix the problem and it’s the rest of us who are paying the price.