Princes Town MP Barry Padarath has called on the Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales to tell the country whether the government has paid any of the money it owes the TT Electricity Commission (T&TEC).
He also questioned whether the government intends to remove the subsidy on the natural gas that the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) buys from the National Gas Company (NGC) for the production of electricity.
In a media release on Wednesday, Padarath said this is a question that “must be answered ahead of the next General Elections because the removal of the subsidy would have a direct impact on the price citizens pay for electricity.”
Padarath recalled that in a question to the Parliament last September, the Minister “admitted” that Ministries and State enterprises had a total outstanding debt of $1.5 billion to T&TEC.
“He (Gonzales) argued that this has contributed significantly to the inability of T&TEC to meet its financial obligations,” Padarath said.
The MP also called on Gonzales to tell the country whether the government has paid any of the money it owes to T&TEC “before calling on citizens to carry the burden of paying the debt T&TEC has to NGC.”
Padarath added that had the government serviced its debt to T&TEC, the company would have been in a much better position to meet its obligations.
He said: “Before the government forces citizens to pay more for water and electricity, the level of service, supply and delivery has to be addressed.”
During the commissioning of a 15 kilowatt solar PV system at Charlotteville Methodist Primary School last Friday, Gonzales noted that T&TEC currently owes the NGC some $4 billion.
He said: “T&TEC gets its gas from NGC; the price that it pays for the gas is not passed on to you the consumers, and that is the reason why today, the Government owes the NGC over $4 billion.”
The minister also noted that citizens may end up having to pay higher rates
“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.”
Following public comments after a newspaper article on the subject, Gonzales subsequently posted on his Facebook page that he simply “explained how much it costs the state to provide cheap electricity rates for our citizens, and in so doing, I focused on the debt owed to NGC by TTEC that Govt and by extension the citizens struggle to pay.”
“In this context, I urged the pupils of the school to consider how much savings we can realise as a country if we transition to renewable energy as a key source of energy generation. Billions of dollars can be saved by our citizens and our declining gas reserves can be put to better usage thereby adding further value to our citizens. These savings can now be put towards building better infrastructure for our country like schools, health facilities, roads, etc,” the minister said.