1.       The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) is robbing the poor to recover their revenue from the loss of electricity generated and I will explain how this is so. There are entities mainly businesses that are consuming the bulk of GPL’s electricity and aren’t paying for the amount of kilowatts which they consumed in money value against energy used. Some electricity generated also are being used by illegal connection and aren’t being paid for.

2.       We understand however that GPL’s share from the country’s budget was cut by billions which however have a dramatic impact on the company. As a citizen of our beautiful country, the way things goes these days people have to suffer or stage a large protest and few lives have to be lost before we can have our voices be heard or before we can achieve what we are aiming for. It’s the politics of life these days and it’s far gone beyond the point of no return to where it used to be a decade ago.
3.       However, in order for GPL to survive they must recover their money one way or the other and surprisingly they’ve chosen the easy way out, “Robbing the poor and saving the rich while the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer.” I know there will be a lot of raised eyebrows after my letter is read if published.
4.       I am living in Berbice, my meter that was on my property had the capability to record reading for a 110/220v capacity, was replaced with a meter to only read 110v electricity. For example let’s say I was using 60 kilowatts of electricity per month with the old meter for all the years it was on my property the newly installed meter by GPL on my property started reading 300 – 400 kilowatts of electricity for the months after it was installed.
5.       I made complaints and reports to GPL about the meter and that they should come and check it out because it sure is faulty as my property doesn’t have the ability to consume that much energy. The part that hurts most is that I have to pay GPL the difference in value for the electricity that the meter recorded that I may have used. A crew from GPL came to my place and tested the meter and found that it was a faulty meter and needs to be changed. By this time I have already paid two more bills in excess of $25,000, whereas my normal bill for all the years coming from since 2000 when I got power from GPL is $5,000.00 to $8,000.00 during the year and $9,000.00 to $11,000.00 in December since it’s the Christmas season.
6.       When contacted GPL again for the 10th time concerning the over charging on my bill, the response I am getting all the time is that they can’t do anything and that I would have to pay the bill until the meter can be replaced and they would probably refund the excess money back into my account. Where in the history of GPL do you know, Mr. Editor that they refund? Tell me Mr. Editor, how can a household where one person is working with a monthly income of $50,000 afford to pay that amount of money, still have to pay other bills and survive on that amount of money for the entire month.
7.       Mr. Editor if you conduct a research in Berbice, and you don’t have to go far, but each of GPL’s Offices, you will see how many persons go there on a daily basis with the same very issue that I am having and which am facing for the past five months now.
8.       This is how I see it Mr. Editor. GPL deliberately placed these refurbished meters on the homes of the poor so that they can over bill them to recover their lost revenue that they’re losing on a daily basis through unpaid bills for energy being sold and illegal connections. This is so because they are brave enough to tell the poor people there’s nothing they can do about the overbilling on their account but not brave enough to disconnect service going to those people who have illegal connections and recover millions owing to them by businesses.
9.       I hope the relevant authorities and persons in the Cabinet that the poor voted in there could help us, for it’s that reason we the people put you there.

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DINISH SINGH