An increase in natural gas rates is on the horizon for Barbadian consumers.
Minister of Industry and Commerce Donville Inniss put the public on notice yesterday as he revealed that the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Energy have been discussing new rates.
It’s a move that has the full backing of Inniss, who argued that natural gas rates were long overdue for an increase and the National Petroleum Corporation (NPC) would be in a better position to roll out the service to more communities.
“When you look at it, there has not been any increase in natural gas prices in Barbados now for 20 years on the residential side, and about ten years on the commercial side. Yet still, we expect the NPC and those bodies to do more. It is not practical.
“It is long overdue and it is one way in which we will be able to provide natural gas to more consumers,” the minister told the official opening of another Rubis service station yesterday.
Natural gas is currently available in parts of eight of the island’s 11 parishes to just over 16,000 householders, as well as several commercial entities, with some residents paying as little as $12 a month.
The monthly rate schedule consists of a consumption charge of $1.48 per cubic metre, a fixed charge of $3.00 per month for each domestic meter, and 17.5 per cent Value Added Tax on the bill. A ten per cent discount is given if the bill is settled within 15 days of the billing date.
Inniss argued that there was need to bring the rate “in line more with reality.”
“It is a cheap form of energy. But the harsh reality is that we have challenges with quantity and supply, plus the cost at which it is being delivered now to commercial enterprises and residents is not at the level that affords the National Petroleum Corporation to be a viable entity and to be able to expand.”
In a swift response, Director General of the Barbados Consumer Research Association Malcolm Gibbs-Taitt told the Barbados Today online newspaper that he was opposed to an increase unless Government was willing to also give public servants a pay rise.
He said a price hike made no sense if wages remained stagnant.