By Sue-Ann Wayow
STATE agencies are owing the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) more than $1 billion.
This was revealed by T&TEC’s General Manager Kelvin Ramsook during a Joint Select Committee on Land and Physical Infrastructure on Thursday who said the total debt owed was approximately $1.8 billion with $1.1 billion being outstanding public debt.
Ramsook was asked about the debt owed by committee member Senator Saddam Hosein.
Ramsook said the commission has been communicating with those agencies virtually and although the feedback was not to the extent the commission would like, there was some positivity.
He said, “We continue to interact with a number of the agencies and we have been going to them. With Covid on, we have been having virtual meetings and we have been getting commitments from them, from a number of the agencies in terms of some payment.
“We are seeing some positive improvement, not to the extent that we would like but certainly some improvement in terms of collections when it comes to public accounts.”
However, he added that T&TEC receives assistance from the Government including payments to the National Gas Company through a government arrangement and sometimes, payments were balanced off in that way.
