Dear Editor,
As a Linden layperson and an ex-Linmine pensioner, I’m tired of hearing about the subsidies that the goverment has been giving to Linden to make up the cost of their electricity tariffs. Although I agree that the Linden rates are too low, I disagree that we should be made to pay the same as the Georgetown consumers. GPL admits that 40% of their generation is lost through theft and other technical line losses, and therefore the rates that Georgetown consumers pay obviously includes an amount to make up for this. If they want to sit meekly and accept these high rates, when they should be paying only 60% or about $40 per kWh, then so be it. But why should Lindeners be made to do the same when GPL doesn’t even provide our electricity. As far as I understand, Bosai generates our electricity with their diesel generators and sells it to the Linden Electricity Corporation. Their generation cost is approximately $43 per kWh. When Guymine generated our power with its steam power plant, the cost was much cheaper. This plant was scrapped and we now have this situation.
What I would like to know is the other side of the coin: What has the government received from its sale of our bauxite operations? After Mincorp made a mess of Linmine which started the Linden decline, and the operations were sold to Iamgold for US$10M that later resold it to Bosai Minerals for US$46M, it included all the shops – Machine Shop, the biggest and best in the Caribbean, Carpentry Shop, Automotive Shop, and a few others, all equipped with the latest machines and tools. All the equipment including huge draglines, scrapers, tractors, railroad tracks, locomotives, etc. Most, if not all of this was cut up and sold as scrap metal. Hard to believe, but true. How much money did this exercise generate and where did it go? Did it go to NICIL? Ask Mr Brassington.
BIDCO, our Georgetown sister company, had many properties, some of which were taken over by the government and some were sold, eg, Bidco Head Office in Main Street, now the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport, the Customs office in Church Street, Duke St Guest House, sold to Roraima and the adjoining property, Forshaw Street property and the Training Centre in Queenstown, and a host of others. How much were these properties sold for and what happened to the money? Did it go to NICIL again?
A lot of property was also sold and is still being sold in Linden. I understand the current price is $300,000 per lot. Again, where has all this money gone? So instead of harping on about the electricity subsidies that have been going to Linden over the years, let us hear a bit more about all the money that was passed on to the government, through NICIL or the Privatisation Unit so we can have a balanced perspective.
I read recently that Bosai made $119M in profits off their electricity generation in the past two years. Why should they be making profit off electricity generation when they are a bauxite operation? Shouldn’t their electricity costs be part of their expenses? This might suggest that they have been overcharging for power. In effect, this would mean that the subsidies that the government claims they have been giving to Linden, have been going indirectly to Bosai.
I heard the President today at a news conference, repeat the Prime Minister’s statement that the electricity rate hikes are gradual. So I did a little arithmetic to see how gradual this was. As a pensioner, I have been getting 300kWh free as part of my pension package. Now this has been reduced to 50kWh. A decrease of 83.33%. In addition, the rate from July 1 will be $50 per kWh instead of $5, an increase of 900%. So if my monthly consumption is 300 kWh, I will now have to pay $12,500 instead of $0. If I bring it down to 200 kWh, I will now pay $7500 instead of $0. And If I manage to get it down to 150 kWh, which the PM says is the average for the rest of the country, I will now pay $5000 (half of my government pension). Of course, the survey to arrive at the 150 kWh per month does not include the thousands who are stealing electricity from GPL. So how reliable was the survey? And how gradual is the increase? I would think that the line path from$5 to $62 would be at intervals of $10 or $20, not $5 to $50 to $62.
Incidentally, I disagree entirely with the concept that we should pay the same rate as Georgetown. We are not on the National Grid; our power comes directly from Bosai which may have been overcharging us and making profit to boot. It’s as if you go into the supermarket and pay their price for fruit and vegetables instead of the price the market vendor acquires it at. Just so that the whole country pays the same price. A new brand of economics.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
