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As most Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) cus­tomers have breathed a sigh of re­lief over the Gov­ern­ment’s promise not to in­crease elec­tric­i­ty rates, for­mer Pub­lic Util­i­ties min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les says the cur­rent sta­tus quo is not sus­tain­able.

Days af­ter crit­i­cis­ing Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath’s new plans for the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty, as a re­sult of Cab­i­net’s scrap­ping of the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion’s trans­for­ma­tion plan, Gon­za­les is now in agree­ment with the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to keep the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ (UNC) elec­tion promise of no elec­tric­i­ty rate hike.

Speak­ing on Guardian Me­dia via tele­phone yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les said the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) recog­nised that in­creas­ing elec­tric­i­ty rates would have a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact, es­pe­cial­ly for low-in­come do­mes­tic con­sumers, and as such agreed that it should not be done.