Opposition Leader: Cost of Living Burdening Belizeans

Electricity rates increased on July first after an application by Belize Electricity Limited to the Public Utilities Commission was successful. The new rates will be in effect for the next two years.  The increase is from approximately thirty-seven cents per kilowatt hour to thirty-nine point five cents for the first year and thirty-nine cents per kilowatt hour for the second year. The new rates came after the Government lowered the twelve point five percent GST threshold on electricity bills from two hundred dollars to one hundred dollars. For John Briceño, this is a double whammy slapped on the Belizean people by the Barrow Administration.

John Briceño

John Briceño, Leader of Opposition

“The very company now that he claims that we own and the very Public Utilities Commission that he controls is telling us that they are going to raise by six percent. To me what is the most nefarious thing about this whole thing is the point that you made. That now he is charging GST. He reduced the amount that is exempted of GST. So by increasing by six percent a lot of people are going to be move into the category to pay an additional twelve and a half percent. So in effect for these people electricity is going to go up by eighteen and a half percent. Again it is another example where the Prime Minister did not think things out properly and instead of making things better for us, he has been consistently making it worse for the Belizean people.”