Light Bill Going Up!

At the beginning of April, just after the Easter break, we told you about a request made by Belize Electricity Limited to take up electricity rates. At the time, B.E.L. said that this was as a result of increases in the cost of power purchased from producers and the company proposed an increase of seven point one percent in the Mean Electricity Rate to thirty-nine cents per kilowatt hours. Today, the Public Utilities Commission says that its initial decision for the annual review proceedings is that effective April first, 2018, it recommends an increase from thirty-six point nine-nine cents per kilowatt-hour to thirty-nine point five-four cents and thirty-eight point seven-five cents, respectively, for the next two annual tariff periods. According to the release, the Commission has approved regulated values that resulted in a mean electricity rate of thirty-eight point six-two cents per kilowatt-hour between July first 2018 and June thirtieth 2020. This represents a general increase of about four point four percent to currently approved tariffs.