The Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) has hiked the security deposits for disconnected customers in order to force persons to pay their bills.
GPL stated in a disconnection notice published in Wednesday’s edition of this newspaper that disconnected customers will have to pay an increased security deposit equivalent to six times the average of their monthly bill, in addition to the $3,200 reconnection fee and their outstanding bill.
This new requirement has attracted the attention of some citizens and in a letter to the editor one writer deemed the requirement as ridiculous.
The letter writer W.P. George stated: “The person who cannot properly pay his bill is the ordinary working class person who is forever living on next week’s or next month’s pay. If the consumer is making plenty of money then he would not find it difficult to pay his light bill, but the ordinary labourer whose expenses amount to more than his earnings finds difficulty.”
When contacted, GPL CEO Bharat Dindyal said that schedule four of the company’s licence of October 2010 gives it the ability to take such measures and it has decided to implement the strategy. He added that this action was done to remedy the situation of customers not paying their bills on time.
When asked about the effect of this on customers, Dindyal said that despite economic circumstances, GPL has to run its business and purchase fuel on time so customers should pay their bills on time.
