The Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce has called for a phased ap­proach to changes in nat­ur­al gas pric­ing fol­low­ing an in­crease an­nounced by the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In a me­dia re­lease, the TT Cham­ber said it is col­lect­ing in­for­ma­tion from mem­bers on cost in­creas­es linked to the 77 per cent rise in gas rates. The or­gan­i­sa­tion said the da­ta will ad­dress changes in op­er­at­ing costs and ef­fects on pric­ing, em­ploy­ment and ex­ports.

The TT Cham­ber said man­u­fac­tur­ers have op­er­at­ed un­der gas pric­ing arrange­ments set by the State as part of ef­forts to sup­port di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion. It not­ed that elec­tric­i­ty and wa­ter sub­si­dies al­so form part of the frame­work un­der which busi­ness­es op­er­ate. The cham­ber said these mea­sures are linked to growth plans that re­ly on part­ner­ship be­tween the State and busi­ness.