P.U.C. consultant recommends 17% water rate hike
It seems inevitable that, come April, Belizeans will be paying more for water. Dr. Richard Hern, the independent expert hired by the Public Utilities Commission to conduct a third party study, spent three weeks in Belize reviewing information provided by consumers, Belize Water Services Limited, and the P.U.C. itself. Hern has concluded that a price increase averaging seventeen percent is reasonable under the guidelines presented to him. B.W.S. had initially proposed a thirty-two percent price hike and the P.U.C. countered with fifteen percent. According to P.U.C. chairman, Dr. Gilly Canton, the public now has until March eighteenth to make rebuttals to the report. After that date the P.U.C. will further deliberate the recommendations and make its final decision on the seventeenth of April. Any price changes would take effect retroactive to April first. Dr. Canton says he is satisfied that the process will result in a fair and reasonable scenario for all concerned.
Dr. Gilbert Canton, Chairman, Public Utilities Commission
“The position of the P.U.C. is that the initial decision that we thought fifteen percent is what is required, Doctor Hern has come back and said he thinks it’s seventeen percent. And he has gone through B.W.S.’ submissions, he has gone through our initial determinations. He has looked at all the different submissions that were made, the transcript of the public hearings. He has looked at all the information that is available. He’s benchmarked it with different situations around the world and he’s actually gone back in and adjusted certain things. For example, we had looked very strongly at the CAPEX portion of the submissions and he put back some CAPEX that we had took out that he thought should be provided for, some expansions at the Water Treatment plants and stuff like that. And then, he looked at some areas that maybe we did not look at hard enough, like cutting the operating expenses, looking at management fees again, doing things like that. Also, looking at the demand profile, he’s actually said that the demand profile can be improved upon to give more revenue to the company.”
Janelle Chanona
“B.W.S. has said they want an increase, they wanted more than the fifteen percent, Dr. Hern has concluded there should be an increase. Is there anything realistically that the public can do to say, we don’t want this price rate to change at all?”
Dr. Gilbert Canton
“I guess the comments can still come in to say that they don’t want any tariff increase at all. Our job basically is to balance the interest of the service provider, the public, and government policy. So it’s a balancing act. I guess at this point in time, you look at it, the reasonable decision will come out. We’ve already indicated where we are, the seventeen percent is more in the ballpark of what we think is right as opposed to what B.W.S. is requesting.”
Statements by both Dr. Hern and the P.U.C. have indicated that any proposed rate increases would be applied in such a way that low-income consumers would have small price hikes while larger consumers would face a steeper percentage rise. Copies of Dr. Hern’s report are available on the internet at www.puc.bz or at the Public Utilities Commission Office at number sixty-three Regent Street in Belize City.
