GAS station signboards silently proclaim the bad news: $47.85 a litre; $51.45 a litre; $54.75 a litre.

For diesel, it’s $46.38.

And be prepared for an extra jolt at those gas stations that have always defied the industry practice, and never display their prices on signboards. They tend to extract a little extra.

To allow for a deeper appreciation of the price you now pay for gas, the cost conversions to imperial measurements on the quotes above would be $217.24; $233.58; and $248.56 per gallon.

For diesel, it’s $210.56.

Up to six years ago, political activists, taking their cue from the genuine and spontaneous protests of motorists, have whipped demonstrations over relatively minuscule rises in the price of gasolene.

Today, as octane prices bubble higher in litres, it not unusual for a complacent motorists to boast how much they have had to pay to fill up their SUVs, pick-up trucks and other gas-guzzling behemoths.

But steep increases in the price of gas in Jamaica weren’t always taken so lightly. In fact, the reaction tended to be violent and deadly.

In April 1999, January 1985, and January 1979, relatively small increases in the price of gasolene, led to riots which claimed a total of 16 lives.

In 1999, on April 19, 20 and 21, a total of nine people were shot dead and 14 members of the security forces shot and injured during protests throughout the island over increases in the tax on petroleum products.

In response, Prime Minister PJ Patterson named banker Peter Moses, then president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, to head a committee to suggest ways to cushion the impact of the government’s gas tax which triggered the violent flare-up.

In 1985, from January 15 to 17, five people were shot dead and 15 others shot and wounded during demonstrations to protest increases in the price of gasolene and other petroleum products.

The violence which flared – as some motorists protested a $1.91 increase in the price of premium gasolene and rises in the prices of diesel oil, kerosene, and cooking gas – escalated into widespread disorder as political activists drove around, inciting more demonstrations.

The increase which sparked this protest was from $8.99 a gallon to $10.90 a gallon for premium gasolene, the only gas available then.

Those two gas price demonstrations, however, were copycat protests of the January 10-13, 1979 event that claimed two lives, with three others being wounded by bullets.

The 1979 demonstrators were protesting against a rise in the price of gasolene that took effect January 10 – from $3 to $3.20 a gallon for premium gasolene and from $2.85 to $3.10 a gallon or regular.

The following list is of prices at which gasolene has been sold in Jamaica over the years, quoted per gallon:

November 1973 premium 66.4 cents regular 55.2 cents

July 1974: premium $1.20 regular $1.10

August 1975: premium $1.26 regular $1.16

There were no gas price rises in 1976, an election year

January 1977: premium $1.98 regular $1.88

January 1978: premium $2.25 regular $1.16

May 1978: premium $3.00 regular $2.85

January 1979: premium $3.20 regular $3.10

April 1979: premium $3.50 regular $3.40

January 1980: premium $4.65 regular $4.55

June 1983: premium $5.99

December 1983: premium $8.99.

On April 13, 1990, Hugh Small, then minister of mining and energy, announced new prices for petroleum products, the first since the violent demonstrations of January 1985.

The new prices for premium motor gasolene was $12 a gallon, with gas oil being sold at service stations for $10 a gallon and $9.90 when sold in bulk.

Kerosene for domestic use was sold at $5.29 a gallon in the corporate area of Kingston and St Andrew, and $5.40 in other areas. Bulk kersosene was sold at $10 a gallon.

On November 11, 1992, the Petcom service station in Portmore was advertising premium gasolene at $6.58 per litre or $29.92 per gallon; unleaded at $6.93 per litre or $31.50 per gallon, and automotive diesel at $6.06 per litre or $27.56 a gallon.

Today, almost 13 years later, a look at the prices at the pump suggests that the price-setting mechanism has morphed. Bear in mind, however, that gas prices in Jamaica station are still among the cheapest worldwide.

But, with the adverse effects of Hurricane Katrina on oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, and with the price of oil trending up on the world market even before then, and the inherently inflationary nature of gas price increases, the figures at the pumps may very well get worse before they get better.

williamsl@jamaicaobserver.com