The island’s sole electricity supplier told a rate hearing today that it proposes to cap the bills of 41 000 low-income consumers at $6 per month provided they don’t go over 150 kilowatts per hour of usage.This position was put to the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) panel in the rate adjustment hearing, by the lead attorney for the applicant, the Barbados Light & Power Company (BLPC).In his opening presentation on Thursday, Ramon Alleyne, King’s Counsel (KC), said the number of domestic customers who stand to benefit from this cap has increased by close to 10,000 since the last rate hike in 2010.“The customer charge increase on lower usage blocks will be kept below full cost of service to reduce bill impacts on lower usage customers, many of whom may have low incomes; while the customer charge on the higher usage blocks will be at the cost of service,” the senior attorney submitted.
