Although they have been operating without formal paper retail marketing licences since 2010, service station operators are compliant with the laws of T&T.
This is the position of the T&T Petroleum Dealers’ Association (PDA) in response to statements by Energy Minister Nicole Olivierre that 136 service stations are operating illegally.
The minister, who raised the issue at the official opening of the St Christopher’s Taxi Cab Co-Operative Service Station on Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, on Thursday, said the State was giving the operators six months to regularise their status.
However, PDA president Derek Joseph, in a statement yesterday, rejected the minister’s claim that members of the group have been operating illegally.
He said Olivierre’s statement implied that the T&T National Petroleum Marketing Company Limited (NP) “has been and continues to aid and abet operators who do not possess valid retail marketing licenses, in contravention of the Petroleum Act 1969 Chapter 62.01.”
Joseph said service station operators continued to pay the annual licence fees, as well as receive and pay for product invoices from NP. They also paid taxes, filed annual returns to the Ministry of Finance and continued to provide fuel to the motoring public, he added.
He referred to a July 2014 ruling by Justice Carol Gobin in a matter between service station operators Adesh and Prakash Maharaj and the minister of energy in which she determined that they did in fact have de facto retail petroleum marketing licences despite not being in possession of paper retail licences.
“The learned judge in fact clarifies that petroleum filling station operators are not operating illegally,” he said.
Joseph also referred to an affidavit submitted to the High Court by the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs in an ongoing matter which states: “In or about mid-2010, the then Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs determined that the terms and conditions of the retail marketing licences were inadequate to properly regulate the retail of petroleum products.
“The Honourable Minister directed the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs to review and revise the licensing instrument.
“As a result of this direction, applications for licences which were submitted to the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs were withheld pending the review exercise.
“Service Station operators nevertheless continued to pay the fees and charge for the renewal of their retail marketing licences. In July 2013, the new form of the retail marketing licence was submitted to the Cabinet for approval. The Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs is still awaiting Cabinet approval.”
Joseph said the PDA was calling on the ministry to continue the consultation process and to issue the licences immediately in accordance with the Petroleum Act 1969 Chapter 62.01.