A mission entrusted to the General Inspectorate of Finance on fuel prices in Overseas Territories proposes the cessation of refining activity at the Sara Antilles refinery due to its costs “students” weighing on purchasing power, according to a report consulted Monday by AFP.
The General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) was tasked at the start of 2022 by the government in particular to:“questioning the current pricing model” fuels and gas in Guadeloupe, Martinique and Guyana, where the company Sara (Société anonyme de la raffinerie des Antilles) holds a historic monopoly on refining. This report, written in 2022 but made public only at the beginning of September, was long-awaited by elected officials in these territories, where fuel prices, regulated monthly by prefectural decree, are regularly at the heart of social protests over the high cost of living.
“Taxation lower by a third”
These prices are “higher than those in mainland France (+13 euro cents per litre on superfuel and +7 euro cents/l for diesel on average)” in Martinique, Guadeloupe or Guyana, detail the authors of the report, explaining that “this relatively small gap” only holds by “taxation lower by a third” applied by local authorities.
La Sara, the only refinery in the French Antilles and Guiana, imports “crude, finished and semi-finished petroleum products”refines and stores fuel. The company’s refining business is believed to be the main driver of high fuel prices, according to the report’s authors, who therefore propose “the stop” of this activity, inducing a gain of 14 to 18 cts/l on unleaded. “In return for abandoning the refining activity, Sara could be guaranteed a monopoly on imports.”proposes the mission.
The company said in a statement released on Sunday that it «consternation» in the face of this recommendation made according to her “without basis in economic or accounting reality” and who “directly threatens hundreds of skilled jobs”The report also highlights the need for greater transparency on the method of setting prices, “satisfactory” but lacking “pedagogy”and also suggests delegating control over Sara’s remuneration to the Energy Regulation Commission and no longer to the administration.
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