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Lindeners will still pay 50% less than rest of Guyana – Luncheon
Despite impending tariff hike…
A tariff hike in electricity rates in Linden will still see consumers there
File Photo: Lindeners protest in front of the Regional Democratic Council office earlier this month.
paying less than half what the rest of the country is currently paying, Government has insisted.
Explaining the increase yesterday, Government spokesman, Dr. Roger Luncheon, said that this year, the $3B subsidy for Linden was slashed by $1B which meant that tariffs would have to be increased, though still way below the level of the rest of the country.
The announcement of the hike and slashing of the subsidy has been met with protests by especially Lindeners. The hike was recently passed in Parliament during the 2012 National Budget deliberations.
According to Dr. Luncheon yesterday, the tariffs will go up but not close to what “others” are paying.
Linden will still maintain two sets of rates– residential and commercial– as compared to various levels being charged throughout the rest of the country. There would still be two rates for residences, and separate ones for business, commercial and industrial.
Government has also decided not to impose the $300 fixed rate charges for residential. This will also hold true for the industrial companies which could rise as much as $128,000 monthly, the government official said.
In reality, what Lindeners will be paying is around $24-$26 per kilowatt hour as compared to the $48-$53 being paid by the rest of Guyana.
Dr. Luncheon noted that Lindeners continue to rack up high consumptions as compared to the rest of Guyana.
Hoping that this consumption will go down, the official said that it is a fact that residential usage in Linden is double compared to what is being used in the city and other parts of Guyana. Business use of electricity there also was high at one and half times higher than elsewhere.
Since the closure of the bauxite plants in Linden back in the 80’s Government had introduced the electricity subsidies to the area as a means to alleviate the hardships of many who have been laid off.
A Chinese company, Bosai, has since taken over some aspects of the bauxite industry there while RUSAL, a Russian owned bauxite company, has taken over the operations at Aroaima and Kwakwani.
There have been criticisms of the government’s move to reduce the subsidy which in effect forced the current electricity rates there to be hiked.
But Government says that there have been plans in the making for a while to bring the rates on levels acceptable to the rest of the country.
Opposition parties have accused Government of a revenge act by slashing the subsidy following their massive losses in Linden, a traditional support base of the People’s National Congress, which forms a major part of A Partnership for National Unity, one of the two opposition parties in Parliament.
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