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Lindeners use three times more electricity than others

Jun 21, 2012 News

Lindeners consume two to three times more electricity than other Guyanese, the government stated yesterday, insisting that the town must pay more from July 1.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon, said that opposition arguments that the town is a depressed community cannot stand, given the amount of electricity being consumed by Lindeners.
According to Luncheon, the government last year spent $3 billion subsidizing electricity in Linden. If that money were to be saved by the Guyana Power and Light company, all Guyanese would benefit from a 10 per cent reduction in electricity rates.
The government’s intention to press ahead with electricity tariff increases for the town continues to meet with resistance from Lindeners.
Region Ten Chairman, Sharma Solomon, said that the government is being stubborn and is refusing to understand the grounds under which Lindeners are rejecting the increased tariffs.
“It is not that Lindeners don’t want to pay; the issue is that they are unable to pay,” Solomon told Kaieteur News.
The subsidy in Region Ten has seen only two tariff rates; residential and commercial. This is different from what obtains in the rest of the grid; whereby there is a differentiation among business, commercial and industrial. These tariffs are present everywhere else in Guyana with the exception of Region Ten.
Lindeners currently pay $12 to $15 per kilowatt hour, while the rest of the grid at the lowest level in the commercial category pays $63 per kilowatt hour.
The Region Ten chairman said that the people of Linden are prepared to demonstrate to stakeholders that they are unable to pay the increased tariffs.
He said that the unemployment rate in Linden is 70 per cent and this demonstrates that the town is a depressed community.
As far as Sharma sees it, the government is intent on painting a picture that says the people of Linden are but a “bunch of beggars” and should pay up.
However, he said that that is far from the truth, and that the people of Linden are prepared to show that with high unemployment rates and poor living conditions, a hike in electricity tariffs is unjustified.
Sharma said that the people of Linden would be seeking the help of both opposition parties in Parliament.

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