Prime Minister Sam Hinds says that come July 1, the people of Linden will face higher tariffs for electricity and that residents of the mining town “will have to manage the best way that they can manage.”
Hinds, who has responsibility for the power sector, said that this year’s budget made a provision of $1.865 billion as a subsidy to the people of Linden’s consumption of electricity and this was reduced from almost $3 billion last year. “We aim to bring Linden fully into the system,” Hinds said at the press conference held at the Office of the Prime Minister.
He said that even with the new rates, the provision of electricity will still be subsidised and said it is the aim of the Government to remove the subsidy in a phased manner by the time the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric project is operating. However he warned that should fuel prices escalate it could mean a fast tracking of that process.
Hinds said that the reform was crafted to “protect” those with a smaller income while giving those with a larger income an incentive to conserve on their consumption. Hinds said that with care, a customer could see a monthly bill that is about $5000 ‘heavy’.
The PM said that he is upset by the recent responses by members of the public as to what GPL needs and what the country could afford to purchase.
He said that those persons making condemning statements of the entity must realise the challenge that the Government faces to make capital investment therein.
Horace James CEO of the Linmine Secretariat and of the Linden Electricity Company Inc. (LECI) said that a small group of Linmine pensioners who get 300 kilowatt hours free and have to pay $5 per kWh thereafter are the ones who use the most electricity. “Having received about 300 kwh free they use about 300 kWh per month. The other residential [customers] use about 260 kwh per month,” James said.
He said that over the past five years LECI has been appealing to customers to reduce their consumption. “I must admit that we have failed hopelessly to convince persons to reduce their electricity consumption,” he said.
He added that the new proposal is to give persons in Linden 50 kWh at $5 and anything above this at a rate of $50 per kWh.
Speaking at the press conference, CEO of the Guyana Power and Light Bharat Dindyal said that with an increase in tariffs in Linden is he fearful that theft of electricity will rise as a result. He said that the GPL will have to lend its expertise in dealing with this to LECI.
Dindyal said that the GPL Licence stipulates that the company cannot discriminate against one category of customer, meaning that if and when customers in Linden are subsumed by the National Grid, they must pay the same tariff as those in other parts of the country.
James said that he would like to see more efforts made at conservation. “Let us conserve and set targets…one of the easiest things to do is turn off your lights. I would like people to [first make efforts at conserving before coming to beg and plead],” he said.
Questioned as to whether the people of Linden and Region Ten are not being unduly burdened with the tariff adjustment, the PM said that there are other parts of the country that are also experiencing challenges. Hinds said with regard to the increases, Lindeners “will have to manage the best way that they can manage.”
Hinds in a notice published in the newspapers recently said that the monthly consumption of the 50,000 smallest GPL residential customers averages 45 kWh. He said that in Linden the monthly bill for a consumption of 45 kWh would be between $225 and $315 per month. The PM said that the remaining 100,000 of GPL’s customers average 150 kWh and if this consumption were to be applied to Linden then the monthly billing would be between $5250 and $5350 per month.
“Government recognises that with this less subsidised tariff structure Linden customers will use electricity more carefully, reduce consumption significantly, save themselves money, and save on the subsidy too.
Government undertakes to make any net savings on the electricity subsidy available to customers in Linden, by some procedure that customers may propose,” said Hinds in the notice.
