The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) yesterday reiterated that it had no plans to institute a security deposit for disconnected customers of up to six months of average monthly charges.
Concerns over the deposit were raised after GPL ran an advertisement in which the six-month deposit was referred to.
In a statement, GPL said that it wished to inform that the Standard Terms and Conditions (STC) for Electricity services (The Fourth Schedule to GPL’s Licence) provides clear guidance on the agreement for services. It noted that the STC was one of the legal instruments that was amended in October 2010.
Section 4.9 was amended to include the following section:
‘Increase in security deposit – In any instance in which the Company has disconnected a Customer under section 11.3(c) for non-payment of any amount billed or on a ground provided for in section 11.3(d), (h) or (i), the Company, in its sole discretion, may require a Customer who has had and wishes to retain post-paid service to increase his security deposit to the greater of $20,000 or up to six months of the Company’s estimate of the average monthly charges for any two-month period.’
GPL said that even though the amended STC of October 2010 made provision for this requirement, “our Company wishes to emphatically state that it has never instituted this legal requirement and will not institute such a requirement without adequate notice to customers”.
The Standard Terms and Conditions and the amendments to the Standard Terms and Conditions can be accessed on the website: http://www.gplinc.net/policies#
GPL apologized for any misconception that the Disconnection Notice may have caused.
