GPL should not be placing more burdens on hard-pressed consumers

Dear Editor,

The Stabroek News of Wednesday 5, carried an advertisement from GPL about disconnections, where it was stated that the consumer who is disconnected will have to pay the reconnection fee and an increased security deposit equivalent to six times the average of his or her monthly bill.

Now this third requirement is what I find ridiculous; the person who cannot properly pay his bill is the ordinary working class person who is forever living on next week’s or next month’s pay. If the consumer is making plenty of money then he would not find it difficult to pay his light bill, but the ordinary labourer whose expenses amount to more than his earnings find difficulty.

If for the sake of argument a person’s light bill is, say, six thousand dollars monthly and he is already finding it difficult to pay, so his electricity is disconnected, he has to find the six thousand dollars plus three thousand two hundred dollars reconnection fee then a further thirty six thousand dollars. Where will this hard-pressed consumer find that thirty-six thousand dollars? It is quite wrong for the GPL to place more burdens on already hard-pressed consumers.
I sincerely hope the Ministry of Consumer Protection and the PUC are paying attention.

Yours faithfully,
W P George