Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales says the proposed increase in the electricity rate will not take place this year.

“Before T&TEC implements the rate as proposed and approved by the RIC (Regulated Industries Commission), from a policy perspective, the matter is placed before the Cabinet so that T&TEC, being an agency that belongs to to citizens of TT, will now have the blessing of the Cabinet before the rates are implemented in 2024 as the case may be.”

He was speaking during an interview with Catholic News TV’s Altos programme on Friday.

Gonzales said the matter was referred to the Finance and General Purpose Committee, a sub-committee of Cabinet, to determine the financial implications on domestic, commercial and industrial customers a well as T&TEC.

He said his ministry was gathering all the relevant information to put before the committee. Also, T&TEC had a lot of internal work to do on its systems and had to give a 21-day notice before the rate increase was implemented so it would not occur before the end of 2023.

He said even with the proposed rate increase, TT would still have the lowest electricity rates in the Caribbean second to Suriname.

He added that government spent over $70 million annually on the electricity rebate policy and the electricity bills of vulnerable citizens were subsidised under the utility assistance programme.

Also, T&TEC did not pay NGC for the gas used to generate electricity, which cost the government $5 billion. He said government would have to restructure the subsistence systems and make a final recommendation under the new monthly billing system.

Govt to probe TSTT data breach

Gonzales also announced government’s decision to conduct an independent inquiry into the October 9 cyber attack on the Telecommunication Service of TT (TSTT) although the telecommunications company’s was working with an international cyber security expert on the matter.

He said there had been a lot of conflicting information into the data breach at TSTT where 6GB of customers' data was compromised and released on the dark web on October 28.

He said initially the public was not informed of the extent and gravity of the breach. He too was not fully informed which led to him saying customers’ data was not compromised in Parliament on November 1.

“Subsequently, some further information came to fore and, as a result of that, I have decided to conduct an independent, thorough investigation into the matter. And in the public’s interest, to let the people of TT understand what in fact took place, how it was managed when it was first detected and what ought to be done to prevent this from happening again.”

He said the TSTT board was putting things in place to conduct the investigation and he will be monitoring it and will ensure the resulting recommendations were implemented.

“The board has formed a subcommittee and they have identified a local company that would play a significant role in investigating the matter but there is a national security component th