Cost of utilities to go up as from September 1 |16 August 2018
Domestic consumers will soon see an increase in all their utility bills while for the commercial sector the increase will be only for water and sewerage.
This is because the Public Utilities Cooperation (PUC) will be resuming its tariff rebalancing programme for electricity, water and sewerage as from September 1, 2018.
Giving details of the increases to the press on Tuesday, the chief executive of the PUC, Philippe Morin, stated that the PUC needs to make the increases to help sustain its infrastructural development costs.
He added that investments are necessary in order to drive growth and offer Seychelles with the best and most efficient utility services possible.
Explaining the forthcoming increases, Wingate Mondon, the chief commercial officer at the PUC, said that for instance consumers currently using 300 units of electricity monthly are paying R385.52 but with the new increase they will pay R448.52, an increase of R63.
As for water, for instance consumers currently using 20m³ are paying R297 monthly but with the new adjustment being proposed they will pay R317 for the same amount, which is an increase of R20 on their monthly water bill.
If those same consumers additionally have a sewerage connection, they will see another R20 increase in their sewerage bill.
As for industrial commercial consumers they will see an increase of 12% in their water and sewerage bills only.
“The PUC also needs to increase the cost of these utilities to help with the repayment of the loans it has to source out for its continued investment programme in the coming years,” Mr Morin noted.
On top of that the recently completed Sanitation Master Plan shows that over the next 10 years the PUC will require another R1.6 billion of investment in new infrastructure for sewerage around Mahé, Praslin and La Digue.
“There is an urgency to develop these facilities and the PUC is under pressure to provide the service and all these investments need to be supported by sufficient revenue to boost its surplus in order to allow it to continue investing in its development programmes,” Mr Morin stressed.
Mr Morin noted that to help consumers reduce their utility expenses they can invest in energy saving equipment and bulbs and for those consumers still finding it difficult to meet the adjustment costs of their utility expenses, they can seek help from the Agency for Social Protection.
Meanwhile Mr Morin also reminded consumers that the PUC is helping government put in place the democratisation of PV Scheme hopefully before the end of the year whereby some 500 consumers will benefit from the solar energy system provided by government through a grant from the Indian government.
Those consumers to benefit from the system will be selected through the Agency for Social Protection and not the PUC.
It is to be recalled that the tariff rebalancing programme was initiated by the PUC in 2013. It aims to encourage responsible consumption and use of utilities by consumers to help the PUC maintain long-term financial investments to continue improving and developing infrastructure for water, electricity and sewerage to subsequently improve services for consumers.
The programme which was scheduled for every November each year was put on hold in 2015 but now government has approved for it to resume with effect from September 1 this year.
He went on to explain that in the short term the PUC will have to generate approximately R650 million as its direct contribution towards the development of infrastructure for the three utilities. Another R1.5 billion will have to be sourced through loans or grants for medium and long-term investments.
In addition, the corporation would begin the principal repayments on some of the loans taken in the last five years.