Akash Sama­roo

The Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion (RIC) says grants are of­fered to se­nior cit­i­zens and oth­er vul­ner­a­ble groups to help them pay their util­i­ty bills. How­ev­er, the agency’s pro­posed res­i­den­tial rate in­creas­es for the T&T Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) does not make pro­vi­sions for ex­empt­ing se­nior cit­i­zens from a pos­si­ble in­crease in their elec­tric­i­ty bill.

A re­quest for ex­emp­tions made by the T&T As­so­ci­a­tion for Re­tired Per­sons (TTARP) which un­der­scored that the el­der­ly are strug­gling to make ends meet. RIC com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er Driselle Ramjohn ex­plained that on­ly the Gov­ern­ment can make that de­ci­sion but the RIC is aware of the fi­nan­cial im­pact a rate in­crease can have for re­tired peo­ple and those in vul­ner­a­ble groups.

Ramjohn said that’s why the first tier of pro­posed in­creas­es was de­vel­oped.

“The RIC has al­ways con­sid­ered peo­ple with fi­nan­cial con­straints, in­clud­ing re­tired per­sons, in propos­ing rates and that has been done in this par­tic­u­lar draft de­ter­mi­na­tion, so the low­est tier of rates was de­vel­oped for per­sons with­in this cat­e­go­ry and we’ve al­ways tried to en­sure that rates are af­ford­able and there is min­i­mal im­pact to these peo­ple,” she said.

Tier 1 pro­pos­es a $13 in­crease for cus­tomers with a month­ly con­sump­tion of 200 kilo­watt-hours (kWh).

“We looked at vul­ner­a­ble per­sons, pen­sion­ers, we looked at their con­sump­tion, we looked at typ­i­cal house­holds and the ap­pli­ances they have and that’s why that rate was cre­at­ed for per­sons in that cat­e­go­ry,” Ramjohn ex­plained.

But she stressed that those who go be­yond the 200-kWh thresh­old will have to pay more as Tier 1 is capped by con­sump­tion.

On Tues­day, Guardian Me­dia in­ter­viewed 75-year-old Ru­per­tee Bood­hai whose month­ly con­sump­tion in her last bill was 487 kWh. That means Bood­hai will not qual­i­fy for Tier 1 rates.

But Ramjohn said Bood­hai and oth­ers can ap­ply for grants that will cush­ion any rate in­crease.

“These per­sons al­so qual­i­fy for the 35 per cent bill re­bate Gov­ern­ment pro­gramme and they al­so qual­i­fy for the Util­i­ty As­sis­tance Pro­gramme (UAP) by the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and they pay 100 per cent of a bill where the max­i­mum con­sump­tion does not ex­ceed 600 kWh bi-month­ly and ben­e­fi­cia­ries must be in re­ceipt of so­cial as­sis­tance such as pub­lic as­sis­tance, dis­abil­i­ty grants and se­nior cit­i­zens’ pen­sion or any oth­er pen­sion and they must sub­mit an ap­pli­ca­tion to the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties.”

Ramjohn said the con­sul­ta­tion phase of the pro­posed in­creas­es will be­gin in a fort­night.

“It’s go­ing to be re­gion­al. We’ll be go­ing to To­ba­go, Tu­na­puna, Ari­ma, San Fer­nan­do, etc. It will be a 12-week con­sul­ta­tion pe­ri­od and cit­i­zens will have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to voice their con­cerns.”

She said the con­sul­ta­tions with the pub­lic will be pub­lic town hall meet­ings while there will be pri­vate con­sul­ta­tions with spe­cial in­ter­est groups such as the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and trade unions.

Ramjohn point­ed out that the con­sul­ta­tions are not a mere for­mal­i­ty and the RIC will be tak­ing the pub­lic’s views in­to con­sid­er­a­tion.

She said the full draft pro­pos­al, which goes in­to de­tail ex­plain­ing why a rate in­crease can be jus­ti­fied, will be avail­able for pub­lic view­ing on its web­site from to­day.