An additional 5,000 households are due to benefit from the government’s grant of an electricity credit to households that consume 75 kilowatts per hour (kWh) or less per month.
Department of Public Information (DPI) yesterday reported that the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has extended the campaign and is currently contacting the additional 5,000 households that are to benefit.
The DPI report said that thus far 49,966 households saw an automatic reduction on their October, 2021 due to the initiative at a cost of $187.4 million. They comprise 42,724 post-paid and 7,242 pre-paid paid customers.
The electricity relief initiative was announced in August by President Irfaan Ali along with the $25,000 one-off cash grant for old age pensioners, public assistance recipients and persons living with disabilities under a $2.6 billion initiative to assist the most vulnerable citizens in the face of the effects of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
In an address, Ali had said that the electricity credit would be paid to GPL on behalf of households consuming 75 kWh or less per month.
“It is envisaged that before the end of November everybody would have benefited from that measure, which I think will go a long way to alleviating expenses that they would have experienced through GPL [Guyana Power and Light] and light usage or electricity usage,” Human Services and Social Security Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud was quoted as saying by the DPI.
