Water rates go up
The Public Utilities Commission today announced its final decision regarding Belize Water Services’ application for a rate increase. And while it is not the thirty-two percent rate hike that B.W.S.L. wanted, consumers, with a few exceptions, will now have to pay more every time they turn on the faucet. According to the P.U.C., effective April first, the approved rate increase for B.W.S.L. is seventeen percent on a graduated scale, with larger consumers bearing the brunt of the new rate. Chairman of the P.U.C. Gilbert Canton says several factors were taken into consideration when they were determining the new rates.
Gilbert Canton, Chairman, P.U.C.
“There are two things that were looked at in regards to how we did that. First of all, you look at revenue sufficiency and you decide what it is that company wants to do over the five year period and how much money they need to do it and how they go about accessing that money. Based on that determination, we agreed with the independent expert that seventeen percent was sufficient to do that. Once we have that number, the seventeen percent then you have to look at how you apply that and then you bring in the principle of affordability. In this instance what we did is we did not change the basic rate, the rate up to a thousand gallons. So anybody that uses less than a thousand gallons, there is no change in their rates… The principle behind that is that the larger consumers will be paying more of the increase than the smaller consumers. So the effect on the smaller consumers will not be as great.”
Winston Bennett, Director of Water, P.U.C.
“People who live in the sewer zone in the city that currently pay nine dollars for a thousand gallons will continue to pay nine dollars for a thousand gallons. Similarly, people who live in Benque or in San Ignacio or in areas of Belize City that doesn?t have sewer or isn’t connected to the sewer, those people will pay seven dollars and fifty cents for the first thousand gallons. Then after that the rates go up, very small at first, and then consumers who consume say for example over four thousand, five hundred gallons they will start to pay at a rate of seventeen percent or more. So basically we’re saying that consumers who consume between four to five thousand gallons depending on which area you live or less, will be affected somewhere between zero percent and seventeen percent increases.”
Apart from the rate increases, P.U.C. also approved performance targets for B.W.S.L., committing the company to certain improvements within a specified period, including minimum pressure standards, providing uninterrupted supply, and improvement in its consumer relations. Under notified items, B.W.S.L. is expected to do more to try to collect outstanding invoices from delinquent customers and failing that, could apply to the P.U.C. for a rate review taking the bad debt cost into account. The approved seventeen percent rate increase is expected to earn B.W.S.L. an estimated five million dollars in additional revenue.
