– Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI) Hon. Maurice Lake said on Friday that he had stated several months ago that relief would be forthcoming for all across the board with respect to NV GEBE electricity bills.
“We first started with our senior citizens since they live on a fixed minimum income. This was implemented by NV GEBE not too long ago for a period of six months.
“NV GEBE has now executed the relief for residential and commercial consumers of electricity of four cents and one cent per kilowatt hour respectively. I would like to thank the company for bringing forth the relief that they promised to bring to consumers,” Minister Hon. Maurice Lake said on Friday.
NV GEBE informed Minister Lake that the general relief will be seen in electricity utility bills for the consumption period September 2014 to October 2014 with due payment for November 2014.
This across the board relief is for a six-month period from November 2014 to April 2015, and it will be evaluated to see the actual impact on the company.
Minister Lake added that bringing relief for seniors, residential and commercial users of electricity was one of his priority areas.
Other accomplishments as Minister is the completion of a national Energy Policy for the country, the completion of the process of making NV GEBE 100 per cent wholly owned by country Sint Maarten, and the signing between NV GEBE and Government of a Street Light Management Agreement.
The Minister is also looking into alternative energy sources such as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in order to lower the costs of living and further improve the quality of life for the people of Sint Maarten.