By Dennis James
The government owes the National Gas Company over $4 billion, as the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission gets its gas from NGC and the price is not passed on to the consumers.
Minister of Public Utilities, Marvin Gonzales, made the disclosure an address in Charlotteville at the commissioning of a 15 kilowatt solar PV system at Charlotteville Methodist Primary School.
Gonzales said taxpayers will have to pay more “because if T&TEC were called upon to pay that gas price of $4 billion, then someone has to pay for it; it will fall to you the consumers to pay for it because the Government does not have the money to find $4 billion to pay NGC for that gas, so that T&TEC can generate electricity from cheap gas so that you the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago can have affordable electricity.”
Gonzales’ comments come following the Regulated Industries Commission’s public consultation on the proposed increased rates and Cabinet’s deliberations towards the proposed changes in electricity rates to be announced.