The price of everything is going up, from fuel to butane; there was tax implementation on internet data and now electricity rates are going up. To add insult to injury, the Statistical Institute of Belize is claiming that the cost of living is down!
On a press release dated Wednesday, April 4, 2018, The Belize Electricity Limited announced that it had made its submission to the Public Utilities Commission requesting a change in electricity rates for the Annual Tariff Period July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019. This request for a change in electricity rate is a result of increase in the cost of power purchased from power producers.
BEL was therefore proposing to recover these increases in costs through a 7.1% average increase in the Mean Electricity Rate (MER) to $0.3954/kWh, from the current MER of $0.3692/kWh. The Public Utilities Commission of Belize has approved a 4.4% increase – basically meeting the utility company halfway.
The PUC has reviewed their case and decided to approve a tariff of 38.62¢ per kilowatt-hour, up to June 30, 2020. This is an initial decision and BEL can challenge it – and ask for the opinion of an independent expert.
