GUYANA Power and Light (GPL) will need the $3.850B subvention allocated in the 2014 Budget for capital investments aimed at improving and extending the electricity supply to every home in this country.And should the allocation be cut from the estimates, efforts to improve the delivery on the Corentyne and in Leguan, Wakenaam, Bartica and  Anna Regina will have to be shelved and the national  loss prevention programme suspended.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds outlined the situation, last week, to the Opposition in Parliament during the Budget Debate.
He told Members of Parliament (MPs) on the opposite side of the House: “If you cut, I hope that, if we have to go out and get this money elsewhere and we get it on the private market at 15 to 25 percent interest rate, I hope you wouldn’t come back and cry corruption.”
“Be careful how you cut,” the Prime Minister warned them.
In his presentation to the National Assembly, he said the subvention requested was neither a handout nor money being thrown into a black hole and added that it is the amount GPL ought to have been receiving from tariffs.

TARIFF CALCULATION
“The tariff calculation established at the time of GPL’s privatisation, which was based on international practice, sets the annual adjustment of GPL for 2014 at about 12 percent, which would have provided the company with $4B from the increase,” he explained.
Mr. Hinds said that, since the pull out from GPL of the previous investor, Government has given allocations to the company amounting to more than $40B.
On the other hand though, Government had been keeping electricity charges to consumers suppressed, at times by as much of 30 percent and, if Government had allowed the tariff to be where it ought to be, GPL would get $4B or just a little more than that provided in the 2014 budget, he pointed out.
“So, while Government allocations for GPL had totalled $40B, the net total suppression of tariffs or the net forgone revenue has totalled about $27B,” the Prime Minister disclosed.
He said it should be known that, when tariffs are suppressed as has been the case, the company would still need money and, if not provided can then only run down.
“That is how the GPL was in 1992 and we don’t want to repeat that experience,” he stated.

CONTINUOUS REVIEW
The Prime Minister said, despite allegations to the contrary, GPL was under continuous review by experts and consulting groups and is doing fairly well.
He said the requested $3.850B will be used to complete upgrading programmes in Corentyne, the islands of Leguan and Wakenaam, at Anna Regina on the Essequibo Coast and at Bartica.
He cautioned the Opposition MPs: “If  you cut this allocation, the opportunity to make these investments at a concessionary charge of four percent will be lost; the Corentyne will have to live without the sub-stations, the supply of electricity to Leguan and Wakenaam will be restricted to sixteen hours a day or less; the new generating stations at Anna Regina and Bartica will be delayed and the loss recovery programme will have to be suspended.”

(By Clifford Stanley )