Economists split on timing of electricity hike

Switch on the air con­di­tion­er, one econ­o­mist says, and every­one else helps pay for it. An­oth­er says fam­i­lies al­ready squeezed by food prices can­not af­ford to pay more.

The two econ­o­mists are weigh­ing in on the Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion’s (T&TEC) $10 bil­lion debt to the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC), which has be­come a po­lit­i­cal bat­tle­ground.

Dur­ing Wednes­day’s Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee ex­am­i­na­tion of the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties’ 2027 al­lo­ca­tions, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath stopped short of promis­ing cus­tomers they would be spared rate in­creas­es. He blamed the for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion for al­low­ing the debt to bal­loon. Op­po­si­tion MP Stu­art Young coun­tered that the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) had been in of­fice for 19 months and must ad­dress the is­sue.