CAPU asks customers to hold bills

The Committee for Action on Public Utilities, CAPU, is advising B.T.L. customers to hold onto their December bills and not pay them until the last day in January. Their reasoning is that the controversy over B.T.L.’s new rate structure imposed on December first will supposedly be resolved by that time. This is in view of a stop order on the new rates issued by Government, which will become effective on January twenty-sixth. While such a happy ending may be politically possible, legal observers point out there is nothing in the law which will compel B.T.L. to roll back any charges levied between December first and January twenty-sixth. In any case, CAPU is also reminding citizens that the House Public Utilities Committee will hold public hearings on January tenth in the conference room at the Belize City Centre. It is not known whether B.T.L. representatives will attend. As for the hearings scheduled by the Public Utilities Commission and then postponed by the Supreme Court at the request of B.T.L., a late afternoon decision by the Chief Justice today appeared to pave the way for the hearings, so long as the P.U.C. begins the process all over again, providing timely notice and conforming to proper procedures.