Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has asked the Public Utilities Minister to speak with T&TEC and other public utilities to put the real cost of utilities on customers’ bills, along with the subsidised cost.
This is “so that the consumer could see exactly what you getting against the ‘ole talk’ from the people, some of whom know better and will encourage you (the population) to rant, and rave and misbehave,” the prime minister said at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall in Port of Spain.
“[So the bill would say] the real cost is $15, your cost is $3. So you could see and you would have no excuse after that to be misled by people who would lead you astray,” he added.
“Rest assured that the Government will not put a burden in such a way that we believe that the population can’t cope with it. We will try to make it as palatable as possible,” he said, adding that there will still be a subsidy.
“At the end of the day, regardless of what the rates are going to be, there will be a significant amount of support from the Government to the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” the PM said.
Rowley said the Regulated Industries Commission (RIC) had made recommendations to the Government, and the Cabinet would look at these recommendations. “It is not before the Cabinet as yet.”
“The Cabinet will look at what the RIC has put there and the Cabinet would take into account…how it is going to impact here, who is going to pay it there, and who is going to get relief, who will have to pay a bit more without relief and so on,” he said.
No riot over electricity
Rowley said T&TEC could not pay for the gas and owed billions for the gas that it burns to provide electricity. “So let us stop pretending that that is not so, and if we have to pay a little bit more—and I am hoping it is just a little bit more—stop pretending that this is the sky falling on our head,” he said.
“The price of gas has gone up and is going up, and if T&TEC is to keep providing us with a reliable service…we don’t want blackouts…
“All over this country, people are being provided with what I consider to be a good service from T&TEC, but the circumstances are that T&TEC is not able to pay for the gas that it is burning. The minister of finance pays it…but the ability of the minister of finance to pay it is also being reduced,” he said.
He said, “The commercial enterprises were profit-making enterprises and it was unrealistic for such entities to say to the Government ‘so that I can make a profit, you will have to subsidise it’. That is not a reasonable position…
“And I would be very surprised if the voice of the commercial enterprises in Trinidad and Tobago is that ‘because we have to pay a little bit more for electricity, we are now unprofitable,’” the prime minister said.
Pointing out that electricity in the country was still among the cheapest in the world, Rowley said the Government was trying to limit the amount of gas that the country uses to burn for electricity, and this was why it was going into solar and possibly wind energy.
Asked about statements made by UNC Senator Wade Mark about the possibility of riots, the prime minister said: “I don’t think that we will come to the point where there’ll be any riot in Trinidad and Tobago over the electricity because it is not that kind of situation…Wade Mark would love a riot. Well when this country decides to riot with Wade Mark, we reach.”
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