Electricity Goes Up!
How do you feel about the almost 50% increase in the Electricity Bill? It is amazing how this country structures its' prices. They go from 0%-50% in one kill. Maybe they have learnt well with Robinson who introduced 0% to 15% VAT in one go.
I haven't lived in T&T for a while, but what I do remember was that at least once a week, we did not have electricity. If this is still the case in most places around the country, then I would seriously question what this increase is for. A 50% increase in electric bills is almost unheard of; people in the US were asking for blood when they thought heating costs would rise 3-5%. I feel sorry, most of all, for the working class people in T&T who have no choice but to pay these exorbitant bills, because we all know the families will be the ones to suffer from it in the long run.
T&TEC thwarted?
The newspapers reported that T&TEC as of October 2008 had some TT$1 billion in outstanding debt-information presented by T&TEC to the Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee of Parliament. This included monies owed to NGC for natural gas normally supplied at a subsidised rate to T&TEC; further, that 75 per cent of T&TEC's revenue is paid to Powergen and Trinity Power, and to NGC. It was also reported that T&TEC claimed that though sales and customers increased, it is selling electricity below cost! This is despite the recent prescription of a pricing structure for T&TEC's customer classes by the Regulated Industries Commission (RIC). Ref. Source 9