A Partnership for National Unity tonight flayed the power company over its proposed tariff hike of 26.7% and called for the removal of the GPL board and a management shake-up.
The APNU statement follows:
A Partnership for National Unity totally rejects the announced proposal by the Guyana Power and Light Corporation to increase electricity rates by 26.7%.
APNU notes that by GPL’s own admission it is losing more than 31% of the power that it generates. Technical loses are listed at 14%; commercial loss at 17%. Anywhere else in the World a corporation with this type of track record, the board and top- tier management would be dismissed; instead the government of Guyana sought in the National budget to give GPL a whopping 5.2 billion, without demanding reorganization or a turn- around plan.
APNU sees this conspiracy between the PPPC administrations and the Board and Management of GPL as an attempt to punish the people of Guyana for their (GPL) own failures. The tactic is clear to all that this government intends to link this proposed rate increase with the 2013 Budget cuts.
GPL continues to under-perform, there has been no improvement in services and no significant attempt to control line loss, while daily black-out continue to be a way of life.
In the current climate, where citizens are burdened by high cost of living, stagnant wages and exorbitant taxation; rampant unemployment; APNU finds it unconscionable that any civic minded Corporate citizen ( company) would even consider to saddle its customers with such an increase
The PPPC government by encouraging this mismanaged corporation to visit further suffering on the people of Guyana, has laid bare its anti-working class philosophy. This must be seen as an attempt to provoke unrest.
APNU will not stand idly by and allow this burden on the backs of the Guyanese people.
APNU will stand by all Guyanese in their resolve not to pay one cent more!
APNU call for the removal of the entire board of GPL and total managerial overhaul of this mismanaged corporation.
