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I agree with Mr. Urling’s call with respect to electricity subsidies for manufacturers

Mar 20, 2014 Letters

Dear Editor,
I write in support of the call by Mr. Clinton Urling of the GCCI that manufacturing entities should enjoy electricity subsidies in the legitimate activities of their entities.
Guyana is currently a net consumer of imported goods.  We have nothing to (try to) offset this undesirable situation except the gold and rice industries.  Sugar and bauxite are way down the ladder of foreign exchange earners, the latter very near death, the former heading in the same direction.
I interpret Mr. Urling’s call as eyeing other sources of earning foreign exchange, mainly manufacturing/processing exports.
Food is, and will continue to be, next to the air we breathe in the world list of human essentials.  Can’t Guyana be amongst the top on the list of food-producers and related consumables?  With the huge expanse of arable land, the notion that Guyana can be the food basket of the Caribbean (and further afield) has currency.  We can grow almost anything in commercial volumes in this country.  But what do we do with it?
It is here that Mr. Urling’s call has merit.  We need cheap power to process and/or convert produce into export-acceptable forms. We also need cheap power so that we can open factories which will absorb skills coming out of our educational institutions.
With the nixing of Amaila Falls and the improbability of any other option in the foreseeable future, we have to examine our existing reality for any possible avenue to reduce the cost of power to the consumer, including the manufacturing sector.
It is public knowledge that some communities enjoy electricity subsidies while some take it for free. Thousands of electricity consumers, in some instances entire communities, steal electricity. GPL cannot go into those communities for fear of the safety of its employees.  Some businesses also steal electricity and pay corrupt operatives to fiddle.
Those of us who pay our electricity bills are, in the melting pot, paying for those who are subsidized and those who steal.
This, to my mind, is an indictment on the entire country, but moreso on interest groups which have influence, even control, over constituencies which steal electricity and do nothing about it.  In fact, many defend the stealing/subsidizing of electricity.
If we are to be guided by the loss statistics provide by GPL, what it loses by way of electricity theft, if recovered, can reduce in a significant way the current electricity tariffs. Thus we do have a ready avenue to enjoy cheaper electricity for both the residential consumer and the manufacturing sector.
Let us discharge our collective duty to stamp out electricity theft. Are we willing? Or will that make our constituencies angry? Of course, that does not gainsay the need for hydropower or other form(s) of cheaper power generation.
T. Jadunauth

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