A COMMUNITY group stages a protest outside the office of the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) in Pt Lisas calling for a hold on the proposed hike in electricity rates.
Friends of Couva, a community-level initiative in Couva South held the protest.
The Regulated Industries Commission (RIC) has proposed a rate increase for electricity.
Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh said he listened to the growing concern about the impact that increased electricity rates will have on vulnerable single-parent households, senior citizen households and low-income families.
In a release on Wednesday, he said, “The rising costs of food, increased transportation costs, higher medication and healthcare costs, higher automotive maintenance expenses and imminent property tax collection are some of the burdensome challenges that have arisen under this PNM administration led by Prime Minister Keith Rowley.
“I take note that to date, the rate increases remain a worrisome proposal, the fate of which will be decided upon by the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC), for which the line Minister is the Minister of Public Utilities, Marvin Gonzales.”
He said, “I am calling on the Board of Commissioners at T&TEC to reject the economically abominable proposals being made by the RIC. Instead, I am urging T&TEC to embark on a collection drive to recover the $1.4 billion owed to it, noting fully well that the majority is owed by State agencies.”
Indarsingh said, “This figure begs the question as to whether T&TEC has even attempted to collect these outstanding sums, and the extent to which they have been successful in recovering such sums. It also begs the question as to whether the Cabinet has since mandated all agencies owing T&TEC to expedite payments for the amounts owed.”
