Increased electricity tariffs for Linden imminent -Luncheon

Jun 28, 2008 News

Tariffs increase in Linden will be implemented but later than planned and with greater publicity of detail and merit. This is according to Head of Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, yesterday, during his weekly post Cabinet press briefing.

Dr Luncheon said that the increase was inevitable though later than initially planned.

The previous date set for the increase was Tuesday but Dr Luncheon noted that the delay was due to the fact that more time is needed to conclude undertakings made at the first meeting at Watooka when Prime Minister Samuel Hinds said that there would be follow up discussions prior to its implementation.
“The assumption was that the discussions would have taken place already,” said Luncheon.

President Bharrat Jagdeo had also expressed an intention of meeting with Lindeners to bring a conclusion to issue.

Last Thursday, hundreds of angry Lindeners protested the impending electricity hike for the mining town, in the process blocking the Mackenzie/Wismar Bridge to demonstrate against what they say is a deliberate attempt by Government to impose new and unconscionable hardships on a community that is already economically depressed.

The present electricity rates in Linden stand at $5 per kilowatt hour for residential areas. The proposed increase will provide residential areas with 100 kilowatt hours of electricity at $5 per kilowatt hour, and after these 100 kilowatt hours have been used residents will pay standard Guyana Power and Light (GPL) rates.
Of all of GPL customers, says a source within GPL, thousands of them manage on less than 100 kilowatt hours of electricity every month. With this in mind, the source termed the increase ‘moderate’ for the 8000 customers in the Linden area.
Leader of the parliamentary opposition, Robert Corbin, at the time of the protest action traveled to Linden and told the peeved residents that electricity rates would not be hiked on July 1, as had been indicated by Hinds. According to Corbin, the new implementation date would be in October.
There is a concern among Lindeners that the October bill would be back dated to July.
Corbin said that such a decision was an insult to his intelligence, and to the intelligence of the people.
He said that the impending rates should be suspended until further consultations.
There was the suggestion that Bosai should also cushion some of the cost of electricity in the mining community.
In reflecting on the impending escalating rate of electricity, Corbin opined that if that basic utility is hiked by 53 per cent, there is the likelihood that a lot of children in the community will starve.
Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo had also placed his voice on record as saying that it was important for Lindeners to ensure that the people of Linden do not pay a cent more and he recalled a recent meeting with the Prime Minister where it was decided that more consultations would have to be engaged in before any pronouncements on increases could be made.
The Alliance for Change had also condemned the imminent hike saying that the ad hoc and arbitrary manner in which the PPP/C regime is approaching a very sensitive issue that affects the lives of thousands of distressed persons is nothing short of unconscionable.