By next week Thursday or Friday - you should know what the Public Utilities Commission recommends for a decrease in your electricity rate.
That preliminary decision is not due until the sixteenth of January but it will be out by the 12th. - just in time for a House Meeting next Friday.
So, is that mere coincidence, or is it executive pressure placed upon the regulatory body?
That's what we asked the Prime Minister today:..
Jules Vasquez
"We know that the PUC is, and should be, rigorously independent, but with election nearing - at least one for sure - it seems that - is there some meddling in the process of PUC - or some influence in the process of the PUC in terms of their having that meeting, then you're having House Meeting the next day?"
Prime Minister Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"No, the time - the process - the timeline on the law means that the PUC, in fact, would have to do its preliminary decision by the 16th. The fact that it now appears, based on a conversation I had with Mr. Avery, that the PUC might be able to do it by next Thursday, does not any sense depart from the timeline. The PUC never said, 'We will do it on the 16th.' The PUC conceded that we have to do it by the 16th. The fact of the proximity between when now I hope and expect they will make their announcement, and the House Meeting, is, I would think, purely coincidental."
Jules Vasquez
"A happy one at that."
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"A happy coincidence - no, no - life is real, and I am anxious that in fact this reduction of rates, which is a certainty, and which initially has nothing to do with the PUC in the sense that it is BEL itself, in making its submission to the PUC, that has said, 'Yes, lower rates are possible, and we in fact are prepared to live with lower rates to this extent. I want that to be consummated; I want the decision to be finalized. Government is anxious, and there is absolutely nothing wrong, and there can be nothing wrong in Government say to the PUC, 'You have until a certain time. Can you try to accelerate it as much as possible?' I don't think anyone can quarrel with that."
Jules Vasquez
"Now, 3.4% is only about 1 1/2 cents on the 44 cents per kilowatt hour."
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Let me say realistically, that I am certainly hoping that the PUC will find that the facts justify, or can support, an even greater reduction, and I would leave it at that."
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