Consumer advocate looks to P.U.C. for relief
If you listened last night on this broadcast to the Minister of Finance, you’d think that the action by consumers to collect millions of dollars in allegedly illegal overcharges by B.T.L. was a dead issue. And as far as the Supreme Court is concerned, it is…but one man who is not about to give up on the refund issue is consumer advocate Lascelle Arnold. According to Arnold, the court was clear in its ruling and that it’s now up to the Public Utilities Commission to keep the customers satisfied.
Lascelle Arnold, Consumer Advocate
?After the ruling, we sent in a couple letters to the P.U.C. complaining, or filing again…legally the way how the judge ruled, we should file to the P.U.C. concerning this complaint. So the P.U.C. cannot say no, that they do not have complaints in front of them. We have it in writing. We get it hand-delivered and registered mail because the judge ruled that the P.U.C. should take care of it, not the court. So the P.U.C. owes it to the Belizean people to come out and explain to us what is the process we need to go through to deal with it. The P.U.C. is the regulatory body, they are supposed to come out and say what is the process or if this thing is finished. I think the P.U.C. should have the last say, but with an explanation what it is.?
Stewart Krohn
?When you listen to the minister speak, are you concerned that the P.U.C. may not be as independent a body as it is cracked up to be?
Lascelle Arnold
?Well the history shows that the P.U.C. has no kinda autonomy, the way how I see it, the way how they behave, not to me, and not to the public. So this case will show if we really have a regulatory body or if it is just another government department.?
Stewart Krohn
?What do you say to the argument that when B.T.L. changed their rate structure some rates when up, other rates like for overseas calls when down. So really, the rates that went up would balance out by the rates that went down. So all this talk about refund really isn?t valid because if you put the two together the whole thing was really a wash. Is that really valid?
Lascelle Arnold
?My take on it Mr. Krohn is that the whole thing was illegal. Raising from twenty to fifty and from eight to twenty dollars, all that is illegal. So everybody they owe that to. The rates that went down for international calls and the rates that went up for cell phone and regular calls and so was illegal. The ones that went down, they didn?t get permission to…everything was illegal, so I don?t see where the whole rebalancing–they didn?t get permission to do this rebalancing. It?s like something that you have controlled. If you have rice controlled, you could go to the shop and they could sell you for half the price, the government can?t do anything to that shop owner. But if they charge you above the control price, then you have all right as a consumer to go and collect that extra that they charge you.?
Stewart Krohn
?Lascelle, right now it looks like there are not many people in high places who are listening very closely to what you have to say. In view of that, where do you stand now, what?s your next move??
Lascelle Arnold
?The next move is to take a personal visit to the P.U.C. to find out what will be their course to put a closure to this thing. The main that I want is the P.U.C. to come on the air, to come on the radio, to come on TV to the public and explain to them what was the judgement sent down from the Supreme Court to the P.U.C. and what is the action they should take. Because tomorrow if WASA should overcharge you twenty-five dollars on your bill, what is the recourse, who do we go to? And I think the P.U.C. owes that to the Belizean people, where do we make our complaint when a utility provider overcharges a consumer??
Those “illegal rates” referred to by Arnold are the ones still in effect with B.T.L.
