Parliament approves $1.7b for extra Linden power cost

The sum of $1.7 billion in supplementary funding was yesterday approved by Parliament’s Committee of Supply to offset additional costs that were incurred by the Linden Electricity Company Inc as a result of the increase in fuel prices.

Leader of the House for Government Business, Prime Minister Mark Phillips explained to the Committee that the PPP/C administration had committed to stand the cost of increased fuel prices to avoid having the people in Guyana suffering as a result of hiked prices. He had been questioned as to whether the need for supplementary funding was due to inadequate budgeting.

“We requested this to keep the lights on in Linden, Region Ten,” he stated. He stressed that the need for more funds is due to the fuel price having increased several times since the Russian/Ukraine war started.

In response to a question by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton on how the Office of the Prime Minister arrived at the given figure, Phillips further explained that sum requested is based on an invoice submitted by Bosai – a company with whom the government has contracted to supply electricity to Linden.

“There have been various increases over time and the supplier included those costs and passed it on to us. There have been several increases and the overriding factor was to ensure that the people in Linden and its environs have electricity,” he stated.

The requested supplementary funding was part of Financial Paper 2 which requested a total of 2.9b under the current and capital estimates. The entire paper was approved.