RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Chair­man of the Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion Dawn Cal­len­der has giv­en the as­sur­ance that con­sid­er­a­tion will be giv­en to a rec­om­men­da­tion for elec­tric­i­ty rate in­creas­es to be made on a phased ba­sis rather than all at once.

Speak­ing at pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions held in Thicke Vil­lage, Fyz­abad, on Sat­ur­day, Cal­len­der said at least 20 items are be­ing re­searched cur­rent­ly and will be giv­en due con­sid­er­a­tion when the RIC sub­mits its pro­pos­als af­ter con­sul­ta­tions end on March 31. 

Res­i­dent Roshan Seer­am­s­ingh said he un­der­stood why the rates are be­ing in­creased and why it was be­ing done now, but he said he could not un­der­stand why the in­crease is hap­pen­ing all at once.

“The per­cent­ages for the in­crease are sig­nif­i­cant and will hurt peo­ple in their pock­ets. Have you con­sid­ered a phased in­crease in the rates? The coun­try is suf­fer­ing post-pan­dem­ic. Maybe, it could be done in two to three years,” he said.

Cal­len­der then re­spond­ed say­ing: “I can as­sure you that we have tak­en it on board and we are do­ing dif­fer­ent it­er­a­tions on what is pos­si­ble.”

Mean­while, coun­cil­lor for Av­o­cat/San Fran­cique North, Dood­nath Mayrhoo said he would not ac­cept hard­ship be­ing put on peo­ple by the PNM by the RIC.

Bring­ing up his month­ly bill of $414.45, Mayrhoo said af­ter cal­cu­la­tions by a RIC rep­re­sen­ta­tive, his bill will go up on a month­ly ba­sis to $546. 73.

“This is an in­crease of over 25 per cent. All we are get­ting from this gov­ern­ment is an in­crease and we are still fac­ing a wa­ter cri­sis which the RIC is not do­ing any­thing about,” he said.

Mayrhoo said the RIC has not helped cit­i­zens in get­ting re­li­able wa­ter and elec­tric­i­ty in the past but was do­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s man­date to bring more hard­ship to peo­ple.