Consumers filling up their gasoline tanks in St. Vincent and the Grenadines will soon see significant relief at the pump, Prime Minister Godwin Friday announced during a Thursday address to Parliament. Starting next Monday, regular motorists will benefit from a EC$1.02 reduction per gallon of gasoline, the latest adjustment to fuel pricing tied to ongoing government efforts to buffer households and businesses from unstable global energy costs.
Breaking down the new pricing structure, Friday confirmed that the wholesale price of gasoline will drop from EC$17.55 per gallon to EC$16.53, with retail pump prices falling in lockstep from EC$18.31 to EC$17.29 per gallon. Calling the double-digit per-gallon cut “good news” for local consumers, the prime minister explained that the latest price changes are calculated based on a three-month moving average of global fuel costs. This pricing model showed a favorable downward shift for gasoline, but modest upticks for other fuel products: conventional diesel will see a four-cent per gallon increase, while low-sulfur diesel will rise by 33 cents per gallon.
Full retail and wholesale adjustments for the higher-price fuels mirror these shifts: conventional diesel’s wholesale price will climb from EC$16.87 to EC$16.91, pushing retail prices from EC$17.53 to EC$17.57 per gallon. For low-sulfur diesel, wholesale prices will move from EC$16.74 to EC$17.07, with retail pump prices increasing from EC$17.40 to EC$17.73 per gallon. Acknowledging the upward shift for diesel users, Friday noted that the small increase “reflect the current market conditions” driven by ongoing geopolitical unrest.
Crucially, the government will maintain its existing policy of a 50% excise tax cut across all three fuel products, a core part of its broader cost-of-living mitigation strategy. Friday emphasized that the tax relief and targeted price adjustments are the administration’s effort to cushion the blow of volatile, elevated global oil prices, a situation exacerbated by the ongoing armed conflict in the Gulf region.
The prime minister also addressed growing pressure on household electricity costs, revealing that the fuel surcharge applied to VINLEC customer bills for October will rise by seven cents to 86.71 cents per kilowatt-hour. He added that the government’s ongoing monthly electricity subsidy, currently standing at EC$798,591, is already keeping costs lower than they would otherwise be — without the subsidy, the surcharge would hit 92 cents per kilowatt-hour. Since the government rolled out its first set of cost-of-living support measures in May, cumulative electricity subsidies have reached a total of EC$3.9 million, Friday told Parliament.
Alongside announcing new price adjustments and existing support measures, Friday urged Vincentians to pair the government’s relief efforts with personal action to reduce energy use. He called on residents to consider walking for short-distance trips to cut fuel consumption, and to be more conscious of unnecessary household electricity use.
Beyond near-term conservation efforts, the prime minister framed the repeated fuel price swings as a urgent reminder of the need for St. Vincent and the Grenadines to cut its dependence on imported fossil fuels. “We, as a country, we have to take the decision that we are going to move aggressively away from fossil fuels, from oil and gas, towards renewable energy,” Friday said. He stressed that a successful clean energy transition requires actionable commitment rather than just rhetoric, and confirmed that the government will release its detailed roadmap for the shift in upcoming official statements.