TOWN Clerk (Ag), Ms Yonnette Pluck, yesterday said that she was seeking to formulate new proposals to submit to the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) in an effort to remedy the current disconnection issues.

Speaking with this newspaper in a telephone interview, Pluck said she was about to meet with several members of the Council to come up with such proposals because any new suggestions “would have to be based on directives of the Council.”

Ever since GPL disconnected electricity from all the departments at City Hall, Pluck said there has been no new development and that they are still using stand-by generators.

She pointed out that “everything is the same” except that the Council has been unofficially informed that GPL will be adding interest to the sum owed by the municipality.

Pluck expressed concern over the fact that a Day Care Centre in East Ruimveldt and a Health Centre in Charlestown are also without electricity.

She said the Health Centre encountered many difficulties due to the blackout, including the storage of vaccines.

In a press release recently, GPL claimed that it does not owe the M&CC $700M as the Council claims.

“According to GPL’s records, it indeed has an outstanding balance for rates and taxes to-date of $113M. Our annual rates and taxes is $22M, while the annual electricity bill for the M&CC is approximately $180M,” GPL said.

The release said numerous meetings were held between the parties since 2005, at which several agreements were reached to have the Council reduce its indebtedness, but these were repeatedly breached by the Council.

Correspondence from the Company to the Council indicating its willingness to settle all outstanding debts by way of an exchange of cheques have been ignored, GPL said.

“GPL pointed out to City Hall on countless occasions, in writing, that interest on outstanding taxes should be waived as GPL was always willing to pay, but needed to have this done through an exchange of cheques,” the release added.

It further said that their correspondence has received no response to date and, in light of this, GPL made the decision not to pay interest on any rates and taxes due to City Hall until the matter is resolved.

M&CC’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Royston King, told this newspaper last November 17 that the Council does not have the money to pay its outstanding GPL bills.

“As it stands now, we just don’t have the money to pay according to reports from the Treasury Department. We don’t have that kind of money to pay, given the fact that we have to honour our responsibilities to our garbage collectors, drainage contractors, other utilities, and to employees,” King said.

He opined that, should GPL be willing to pay its outstanding amount at City Hall, then the Council would be in a better position to pay GPL.

“We’ve been saying repeatedly that we’re working on a very narrow revenue base, 80% of which is the collection of taxes; and when we don’t get big businesses paying their rates, it puts us on a spot.”

“When companies such as GPL do not pay their general rates or honour their civic responsibilities, it affects our ability to honour our financial obligations, including paying GPL,” he continued.

King offered that since City Hall, as well as GPL, is responsible for providing critical services to the city, a good partnership should be established so that workable solutions may be reached.

The departments currently without electricity include the City Engineer’s Department which covers the areas where applications for building plans are processed, the Mayor’s Office, which houses that of the PRO, and the Personnel and Information Technology departments.