While it is undeniable that the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL)

is not yet providing the desirable level of service to its consumers, it is also undeniable that its service has significantly improved compared to what its predecessor GEC was providing 20 years ago amidst several challenges, including spiralling fuel prices.
But some Guyanese have poor or selective memories, consequently, they have forgotten or have ignored the fact that 20 years and more ago blackouts were a daily occurrence and the number of hours consumers received electricity was far exceeded by the number of hours of power outages. Those were the days when Guyana was characterised by blackouts and the black market and the electricity supply system was in a state of virtual collapse. A power barge nicknamed the “Vietnam Vintage”, because it was used in the U.S./Vietnam war was brought by the then government at a cost of US$2.8M, but it never provided a kilowatt of electricity.
When this government came to office in October 1993 the electricity supply system was in total chaos and it was faced with the herculean task of restoring it to some degree of decency. And the government did put and is still putting tremendous resources and efforts into providing an improved electricity supply system. In this regard, it allocated a subsidy of $10.2 billion for further improving the electricity supply system and very importantly to avoid a 28% increase in electricity tariffs to be passed on to consumers.
Unfortunately, the political opposition in its political madness to slash the national budget has cut the GPL subsidy by almost half.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds at a press conference last week disclosed that even if all of the allocations to GPL in the national budget were met, the sum would not be enough for it to fund all of the things that it “really needs to do.”
In fact, GPL is foregoing some $4.7 billion for other things that it should be doing, he told a press conference in the studios of the National Communications Network (NCN)..
He declared he is particularly “perturbed and perplexed” at the opposition’s cutting of the GPL allocations, remarking that they are not gifts to the company but provided for the consumers of electricity.
“What are we going to do now? What is to be done at this time? Who is GPL? If you’re going to beat GPL, who is the GPL you’re going to beat? What are we to do in this situation?” Mr. Hinds asked.
”We need to get away from this idea that GPL burns money, takes money and burns it up, just destroys it, wastes it. That is not true,” he lamented.
The PM said the possibilities would be to put out less electricity or start selling shares to raise at least the investment side money that has been cut. However, he observed that there are implications in the latter option, for, once shares are raised, returns will be expected and the economic prices would have to come into effect.
It is abundantly clear that the GPL cut by the opposition has nothing to do with economic prudence and the national interest. On the contrary, the opposition intends to use it as a platform for furthering its narrow political agenda. And the game plan is as clear as daylight. As a result of this massive cut, increased electricity tariffs may have to be passed on to consumers and the level of efficiency of GPL would be decreased, thereby adversely affecting the quality of service provided to consumers. This in turn would cause disenchantment among consumers which would be used by the opposition to mobilise and galvanise protests against the government.
The opposition cut to the GPL subsidy exposes its hypocrisy, because while it opposed the gradual removal of electricity subsidies to Linden and politicised the issue which resulted in a tragic situation, it is opposing subsidies for the other sections of the population.
This political masquerading and acrobatics of the opposition is now clear for all to see, including its supporters, and therefore it is hoped that the Guyanese people would exercise wise judgment if and when that time comes and not be fooled by the antics of those who are bent on destroying this country to achieve their narrow political agenda.