The Barbados Light and Power Company (BLPC) told the utility regulators on Tuesday that the Fair Trading Commission’s (FTC) records which show an excess of $32 million in accumulated depreciation rates charged to customers are incorrect and need to be fixed.Director of Finance Ricaido Jennings told this to the panel hearing the BLPC’s application for a basic rate increase for electricity. While Jennings, who was being questioned by the chairman of the proceedings Dr Donley Carrington, agreed that the records should be reconciled, he disagreed about where the adjustments ought to be made.“I am suggesting that the application is based on accumulative depreciation of $853 million and I believe that the $853 million is the appropriate number to use in the application because it represents what’s in the IFRS [International Financial Reporting Standards] statements,” the finance director declared. “I believe that once we conclude this application, we should update the regulatory reports to align with the IFRS statements because I believe the IFRS statements bear a true and fair view of what the actual accumulated depreciation is,” Jennings explained.However, the tribunal chair continued to question whether the witness thought it necessary to adjust the difference in the figures on the records of the commission to align with those on the company’s books seeing that an excess of $32 million is reflected on the books of the regulator.
