BEL cost of Power to go down by 10 percent

Betty Tam

Belize Electricity Limited held its annual general meeting on Thursday night at the Biltmore Plaza.  About two-thirds of shareholders attended the event.  B.E.L.’s Board of Directors declared a dividend of five cent per share for the 2012 financial year. In January 2013, the PUC approved a sixteen point eight per cent increase in electricity rates, but the accounting statements show that income severely plummeted and the company experienced a total loss sixteen million dollars.  The media was not allowed to cover the AGM, however, Senior Manager of Finance & Human Resources, Betty Tam, spoke to News Five’s Jose Sanchez earlier today saying, “We have managed our financial performance to be sustainable and have not required any government bailout.”

Betty Tam, Senior Manager, Finance & Human Resources, B.E.L.

“We were able to report to our shareholders a five cent dividends payment. We were also able to show them that over the two year period, 2011 to 2012, we were able to increase their share capital by over thirty million dollars and as you know, last year we had launched our series five debentures for twenty-five million dollars. That went very well. Before we were at the closing date, we had to close at least three weeks before and at that time, we were already thirteen point five million oversubscribed. And at the same time, for our business to survive, we were able to pay our bills to our suppliers and kept the lights on as we moved forward. We reduced power outages in 2012 in duration and frequency and at the same time, we assisted customers by setting up a service delivery team committee where we were able to connect customers in two days as opposed to three days before. And as we move forward in the organization, we believe that we should always try to keep the rates as reasonable ad possible for our customers. And because of that, we are engaging discussions with our power suppliers to see if they can assist us to give us lower rates, lower cost of power that we can pass on to our customers. And in doing so, we have started discussions with several of our power suppliers; one which is CFE. We’ll have good news on that because they are able to reduce the cost of power to us by ten percent. And I believe that should come on line by the end of July.”