A scheduled 20% across-the-board tariff increase for consumers of electricity was shelved when Government decided on what the opposition termed a $6 billion “bailout” for the company, as well as a restructured payment plan for Lindeners’ consumption of electricity.
Plagued by between 30 – 50% in electricity theft, notably also by some large industrial companies, including one major print media, who allegedly have some GPL staffers and former staffers in their pockets, tariffs to the paying consumers have been considerably increased over recent years to make up the shortfall and sustain the functionality of the electricity company. The proposed 20% increase in tariff would have placed additional burden on the average consumer, especially the poor and vulnerable.

Lindeners, the poor, the rich, and the in-between, when the newly-privatised bauxite company refused to continue to provide free electricity to Lindeners, then President Dr. Cheddi Jagan, recognizing that residents of that region were undergoing peculiar hardships, constrained his government to continue subsidizing electricity to that town, with the result that Lindeners now consider that they have an entitlement to have their electricity consumption paid for by other Guyanese, many of whom are also living under depressed conditions with their own peculiarities of need.

When the bauxite industry went into depression through mismanagement and wastage, then Head-of-State Burnham imposed a crippling levy on the sugar industry, which went toward sustaining Lindeners and the Public Service, among other state institutions.

As a result of this burdensome levy, among other factors, necessary re-capitalisation of the sugar production systems, which had existed for centuries, with some parts becoming obsolete, had become unaffordable. The EU price cuts, with its consequences of the annual loss of millions of US dollars, was a further crippling blow to the industry; yet when the PPP/C Government intervenes to try to save the industry, and consequently the jobs of thousands of Guyanese workers, the opposition fight against this. They (the opposition) encourage the workers to take to the streets on the flimsiest of pretexts, under the guise of caring for the rights of the workers, with a consequential loss to the sugar corporation of millions of US dollars, as well as production shortfall that can negatively impact its overseas markets; again with dire consequences.

Over the years the government has made tremendous investments toward transforming Region 10 so that it no longer is dependent solely on bauxite production, but has diversified interests in various other sectors; along with initiatives such as LEAF and LEAP – unique to Linden, among others that are available to Guyanese countrywide, such as the WOW programme, the OLPF initiative, and many other facilitating educational and empowering programmes.

Linden is no longer the depressed community that it once was, and its future is considerably brighter with a projected massive increase in industrialization in the almost-immediate future.

Lindeners have been nursed along like a premature baby for decades at the expense of other taxpayers.

However, it is now time for the town to be weaned away from its dependency on the state for provision of all its needs.

It is said that people have scant value for things they receive free, as such, when other Guyanese are skimping on their electricity consumption and doing without necessities to pay large electricity bills, Lindeners have gotten accustomed to using electricity indiscriminately, with some residents never turning off their lights.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds informed the House and nation in his Budget presentation recently, inter alia “…last year, the Treasury, from taxes and revenues of all the people of Guyana, put G$2,576,320 to subsidize electricity prices in Linden – that was a subsidy of G$60.81 per kwh billed to the community; subsidies of G$17,000 per month/G$200,000 per year for the average domestic consumer; subsidies of G$50,000/month, G$600,000/year for the average business customer in Linden.

Over the last dozen years, Linden has been steadily growing, and community power has doubled, while the subsidy has tripled.”

PM Hinds posited: “A sound future must be built for Linden, a future in which domestic and business activities in Linden are not curtailed by the necessity and availability of monies to subsidize electricity prices. Also, the reliability of supplies of electricity all over the Linden area must be assured and unified. To these ends, our Government proposes to have the following in place by July 1, 2012 – that is, for the second half of this year:-1) Merge the supply area of LUSCL into LECI; 2) Align the classification of customers in Linden with that of GPL, and adopt the tariff schedule of GPL; 3) Calculate the monthly electricity bill in accordance with the GPL tariff; 4) Customers to pay only half of the bill as calculated for the remainder of 2012; 5) Bauxite pensioners to receive the first 100 kWh each month at no charge, and to pay according to (4) above for consumption beyond 100 kWh/month.

The Prime Minister averred, “With electricity almost free, there has been no driver for the conservative use of electricity, and average domestic consumption in Linden is two to three times of what it is amongst GPL customers.

As it is, Lindeners will still be subsidized by the average taxpayer by half the amount of their electricity consumption for the rest of the year, with in excess of $1 billion allocated for this continued “bailout”.

According to PM Hinds, “This is the opportunity for Lindeners to venture out into the various entrepreneurial avenues that are available and add to their developmental impetus. Lindeners can now become proactive and play an equal part in their future.”

However, it seems that Lindeners are accustomed to putting the burden of their needs on the backs of the average taxpayer in the rest of the country and have no intention of relinquishing their free ride.

And, as usual, the opposition is making much of this opportunity to provide false sympathy to Lindeners in their constant efforts to show the government in a bad light, whereas, if they had been in government and responsible for development in the national construct, with severely constrained funds, it is hardly likely that they would not have taken the same decision to avoid tariff increases in the rest of the country through equalizing the tariffs of consumers countrywide, including Linden.

One letter-writer opined that the opposition leaders have inculcated a “dependency syndrome” into their supporters by encouraging them to think that they are owed everything without being productive; and that they are discriminated against and marginalized if they are not given everything free; so Lindeners are quite happy once other Guyanese taxpayers continue to fund their hefty electricity bills and provide for their continued free ride on the backs of their fellow citizens. It is time to call a halt to this free ride, which is not only just to other Guyanese, but will also, as the PM noted, provide Lindeners with the incentive to become more proactive and productive toward the achievement of their own salvation and prosperity.