Last week the Public Utilities Commission came to a final decision on the Annual Tariff Review Proceedings for 2012 for BEL. Now, the first thing that comes to mind when discussing this is how is the electricity bill going to be affected for the average consumers?
Viewers will remember that in the Full Tariff Review Proceedings, which is done every 4 years - and is different from the annual review proceedings - the PUC announced that the electricity rates would go down by a little more than 6%. This became effective in February. Today, the representatives of the PUC briefed the press about what these new fees will mean. According to them, it's the larger consumers and industrial users that are the ones that will be affected by this decision.
Here's how they explained it:
Dr. Leroy Almendarez, Dir. Tariffs and Admin. - PUC
"Firstly I must state categorically that the decision or the submission in no way requested that the PUC revert or rescind its decision made at the FTRP where there was a 6.1/4% decreased."
Derek Davis, Electrical Engineer - PUC
"The first which is a new fee is call reconnection of pole (disconnection for non-payment or tampering) for $100, that's a new fee. Then another is replacement of meter due service/meter tampering, that's a new fee. You have to look at the asterisks beside it because it says that that can only be applied together with other applicable fees etc. after summary conviction for meter tampering. BEL cannot levy that fee; they have to take the person to court and all of that."
"The next one is the pole rental fee. In previous ARPs and so on BEL did not submit this, they now has submitted it and this not what they ask for but it's a new fee for charging TV and Telecom people for using their poles."
"The last one here is late payment penalty. That again is a nee request by BEL and they have gotten not exactly what they ask for but 0.83% which is 10% a year or so."
Victor Lewis, Dir. of Electricity - PUC
"There were one commercial; those 2500 kilowatt and below are commercial one. Those above 2500 kilowatt are commercial two. Whether BEL gets these fees or does not get them BEL loses nor gains no revenue, its back to what was designed. The fees for example pole rental, the pole belongs to consumers, BEL says its theirs, I feel different. The pole belongs to consumers; they pay for everything. It's an asset owned by BEL but consumers pay for it. So when BEL rents space, they are renting the consumer's asset. So whatever they earned from that is deducted from the revenue they would normally get. They neither go up or down."
This decision came into effect yesterday, and it will end on June 30, 2013.
Today, BEL issued a release in which it clarified the customers being affected by these fees. According to them, it includes - but is not limited to owners of - offices, hotels, resorts, motels, restaurants, retail stores/shops, and food manufacturing establishments. For a full report on the decision, it can be found at www.puc.bz. The PUC also plans to publish it in the coming editions of the newspapers.
