MEMBERS of the public seem set to collectively pay $2.8 billion less in their electricity bills over the next five years than was proposed by TTEC, according to recommendations in the Regulated Industry Commission (RIC) document, Rates and Miscellaneous Charges for 2023 to 2028, recently uploaded to the RIC website.

The document's executive summary stated TTEC's revenue approved by the RIC for recovery through tariffs.

A table said that for 2023-2027 TTEC had sought $29.29 billion, but the RIC has only approved $27.63 billion. This was a difference of $2.8 billion.

The document gave a breakdown of approved tariff revenues gradually rising for each successive year from 2023-2027

These were $4.89 billion (2023), $5.06 billion, $5.37 billion, $6.08 billion and $6.21 billion (2027).

The report said the RIC sought to ensure that only "efficient costs" would be recovered by tariffs.

"The RIC’s approved revenue requirement, exclusive of NGC debt, is $2,818 million lower than TTEC’s proposal over the five years of this regulatory control period. This difference reflects a number of decisions to ensure efficiency and prudency."

The report attributed the savings to the RIC seeking TTEC to make reductions in its operating expenditure ($1,512 million); conversion ($181 million); fuel costs ($528 million); and depreciation charges ($444 million).

The report also reduces TTEC's capital expenditure to be funded from tariffs by 25 per cent or $561 million to a figure of $1.67 billion.

However the report suggested TTEC's customers pay over $1 billion to help cover TTEC's existing debt for buying natural gas.

"The RIC included $1,157 million into the revenue requirement to cover a portion of the outstanding sum of $3,832 million payable to the National Gas Company (NGC) for natural gas purchased from 2019–2022.

The RIC concluded, "The total revenue requirement is considered sufficient for TTEC to adequately meet the expenditure required to effectively exercise its core functions and comply with quality-of-service standards and other RIC requirements for improvement in customer service.

The report, in a section titled Overall impact of tariffs, expected residential rates to rise by 15-49 per cent, commercial by 37-51 per cent, and industrial by 58-70 per cent. Regarding residential clients, the report said the new rates were within the benchmark set by the World Bank.

The hikes would not affect commercial/industrial competitiveness, the document added. "Despite the increases, and on the assumption that electricity costs have been averaged to represent 1.5 per cent of total costs across industries, the expectation is that the increased costs of electricity would not have a major impact on total operating expenses of different industries in the country."

Regarding TTEC as service provider, the RIC said, "The tariff increases will deliver two major outcomes for TTEC: a healthy and sustainable financial outcome, and a specified capital works programme. The tariffs also meet the financial viability criteria,