John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
Esso gasolene retailers are set to intensify their protest against the pricing strategy of the oil marketing company. This service station on Half-Way Tree Road, St. Andrew, remained closed yesterday as retailers suspended fuel sales for a second consecutive day. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE DISPUTE between Esso and its retailers is set to intensify as the parties are still at loggerheads over the pricing strategy used by the oil marketing company to sell fuel.
The Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA), which represents petrol dealers, yesterday summoned its members to an emergency meeting set for today, to discuss the next course of action. This follows close on the heels of a meeting with Phillip Paulwell, the minister with responsibility for the energy sector, which failed to broker a settlement last night.
Trevor Heaven, JGRA president, yesterday said the retailers would be ratcheting up their protest.
For the second consecutive day, gasolene retailers for Esso yesterday suspended the sale of fuel in protest against what they have described as an unfair pricing strategy implemented five years ago by the multinational oil marketing company.
PROFIT MARGINS REDUCED
The retailers contend that the pricing strategy has reduced their profit margins from 8.2 per cent to three per cent. This policy, they complained, has driven many of them out of business and Esso was refusing to honour a commitment it had given to review the strategy in 90 days after it was implemented.
Mr. Heaven said the JGRA had proposed in the meeting last night that Esso increase the dealers' profit margin to 6.25 per cent in the interim, but Esso has refused the offer.
"We put 6.25 per cent on the table as a starter towards suspending the (protest) action and opened
discussions to an amicable solution, but Esso refused to accept it, even with the recommendation of the minister," he said.
Mr. Paulwell said yesterday he had requested Esso to review the JGRA's proposal and was expecting a response from the company last night.
"The matter has been unsettled because I think Esso is controlled mainly from its office in Miami and so the communication has not been as quick as it ought to be," Mr. Paulwell explained.
