Belizeans are already struggling with the high cost of living, and now many say rising electricity bills are adding to the pressure. Prime Minister John Briceño has directed Public Utilities Minister Michel Chebat to meet with BEL and the Public Utilities Commission. He also wants both agencies to face the public and explain what is causing the reported spikes. Here is what the Prime Minister told us.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“Certainly it is something that certainly I am concerned about myself as a citizen and more importantly the prime minister. I have already spoken to minister Chebat I have asked him to meet with the Executive Chairman Ambassador Young and the people from BEL and PUC and asked him to meet with the media and hopefully early next week, Monday or Tuesday to meet with the media and be able to discuss that. So it is something we are taking a look at. A part of the challenge that comes with this is the conversation about affordability. It is a huge challenge for a lot of Belizeans, the cost of living. How do you feel about those concerns? Well of course again, you are asking some very leading questions, of course I am very concerned about affordability. Everybody is very concerned and I need to repeat to you, most of these things we don’t have any control. We don’t have control over the price of fuel. We don’t have control over the price of goods being imported into the country. We have not been raising taxes. We could control tax, but short of that we cant. The truth of the matter we have been doing everything we can to be able to assist.”
PM Briceño Defends Latest Electricity Rates Adjustment
Belizeans will soon pay more for electricity after the Public Utilities Commission approved a one-and-a-half-cent cost-of-power adjustment. Prime Minister John Briceño says government tried to hold off another increase but accepts that this charge is justified. He now points to a recently declared energy emergency as part of a plan to cut BEL’s annual expenses by millions.
Prime Minister John Briceño
Prime Minister John Briceño
“They have a shortage of energy during the prime hours. So BEL has been buying energy for as much as one dollar U.S. a kilowatt and we are only selling it for forty cents, forty two cents Belize. BEL has been selling energy to the public at a loss, for less than what they are buying it. We are not even talking about transmission and all of that. It is a crisis and we as a government are holding back BEL from raising these prices. And it comes to the time when it has to happen and it happened unfortunately. But the good news is that we met with Ambassador Young and two of his young engineers. We met with the Ministry of Energy on Tuesday and he said they are at the point of being able to, under the emergency declaration we did several months ago, they believe they could get companies to come online with electricity. And we are hoping that we can get it within six months and one year we would be able to get four or five companies that are already here to produce more energy and they believe they will be able to do that with twenty-eight million dollars in savings in the first year for BEL. But it is not like you are running a water line in your house from one room to the next. It takes time.”
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