(Jamaica Observer) High light bills have proved the death of one popular Kingston business.
Jo Jo’s Farm Market on Waterloo Road in Kingston is being forced to clear its counters and stalls, unplug its refrigerators and shut its doors because of what its operators say has been a horrific series of electricity bills over the past few months amounting to over $2.5 million.
“It was the light bills that just kept on increasing,” said Anna Chin, proprietor of Jo Jo’s, as she explained how each bill was like a nail was being hammered into the coffin lid of her business.
Her voice was thick with tears as she explained to the Sunday Observer Thursday last, that a half-a-million dollar light bill had been the final straw that broke the camel’s back, closing a business that had survived in various forms for over two decades.
The bill she showed the Sunday Observer, was addressed to Jo Jo’s Distributors, operators of the farm market, with a total amount owing of J$2,648,798.89, which was due on August 8, 2011.
It also showed that J$1,981,157.72 was the balance brought forward from the previous bill and the total value of electricity consumed in the month of July was J$667,641.17.
This bill forced the owners to call it quits on Jo Jo’s Farm Market which officially opened its doors in 2002 and earned the reputation as the little “Uptown Coronation Market” with its large selection of fresh, local produce.
The business soon became home to several vendors, who Jo Jo’s recruited to sell on its premises, and a ready outlet for farmers across the country, expanding to include a very popular and still successful Jo Jo’s Jerk Pit, which remains open.
“The first thing you gotta pay is the light bill or they gonna shut it off,” Chin said while explaining that the business had been failing for some time. While she noted that the high light bills were only part of the problem, given the tough economy and the falling off in her customers, it was definitely what pulled the rug out from under her feet.
“I am talking about this and I am getting very emotional,” she said.
She pauses, sighs, and when she continues, it is with halts and starts as she tries to control her emotions.
“It has left a void in my stomach,” she said trying to stifle her soft sobs.
“I feel like a failure, and it’s not from lack of trying. It’s just the numbers don’t add up, they just can’t work.”
“I have pulled coolers out of the kitchen so that they go in a cooler spot, I have shut down display coolers, shut off huge equipment, I have three large pieces of equipment. I shut down one and my bill went up, my consumption goes up, it’s not just because of the price of oil had gone up.”
“I’m not doing as much business, people come, they buy one head of lettuce…
“The nature of the business that I do, which is dealing with produce, highly perishable goods. They need refrigeration, and the profit margins on such items, and considering there is waste, JPS has just made me obsolete,” she declared.
President of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Alliance, Professor Rosalea Hamilton says she is aware of other businesses going belly up or hovering on the edge of closure because they cannot pay what she terms “extortionary light bills” as a result of kVA (kilovolt amperes) charges levied on business consumers’ bills.
The MSME president told the Sunday Observer she had received complaints from her membership about JPS bills with kVA charges being applied up to six months after the closure of the business and disconnection of the electricity supply.
“Most businesses do not understand the nature of the charges and can’t monitor and control and effectively manage this charge so that it doesn’t become oppressive and lead to the kind of problems we are talking about, such as business closure,” she said.
“The second thing which we find very disturbing, is that if JPS comes to disconnect a meter for non-payment of a bill, or whatever reason, those kVA charges continue to accrue (while the premises is disconnected).
Why would those charges continue to accrue?
“It seems oppressive, because the reason they disconnected in the first place, is because the likelihood is that they (the consumer) is unable to pay,” said Prof Hamilton.
