The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (Petrojam) has given an assurance that E10, the ethanol blend of fuel, will remain cheaper than 87-octane petrol, even after a subsidy is removed later this year.

"MTB is more expensive than ethanol, so the price would still be less than the regular 87-octane," Winston Watson, managing director of Petrojam, told the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of Parliament during a recent meeting.

Marcia Forbes, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Mining and Energy, who also made a presentation to the committee last week, said E10 was first marketed with a "promotional price".

Forbes said the "full" cost of E10 would be implemented in November. She also told the committee that losses associated with the roll-out of E10 were just under $500 million.

Committee member Dr Morais Guy reminded his colleagues that the Government had announced, at the roll-out of E10, that the product would be $2 cheaper than the 87-octane gasolene.

He argued that the public was given the impression that E10 would have been priced at a rate that was cheaper than other petrol on the market.

"It might be a marketing strategy, but to the consumer who has been lulled into feeling that we are getting something that is cheaper, the fact of the matter is that at the end of the day, you are going to be paying the actual cost," Guy contended.

The committee had invited technocrats from the energy ministry and the heads of related agencies to give an overview of the ministry's programmes.