President Donald Ramotar announced this afternoon that he had had a meeting with the board and management of GPL and he has instructed the company to stand down the proposed 26.7% tariff increase until the government can look at ways of restoring the $5b cut from the budget.
He made the announcement at the launch of Guy Expo 2013 this evening at the Guyana International Conference Centre.
“We are ready to take it back once we are assured that it would be restored,” said Ramotar.
The proposed tariff hike has prompted disagreement from the private sector and unions and calls for the government and opposition to work together to avoid the hike. The opposition had been invited to meet the President on ways of avoiding the increase. The AFC declined to attend saying that the government was only now trying to involve it in talks when it should have been doing so earlier.
Critics have dismissed the GPL proposed tariff hike as a political ploy intended to pressure the opposition over cuts applied to the 2013 budget.
