‘Utility increases will be passed on’

WILLEMSTAD — Customers needn’t expect alleviating measures from the commerce now that the utility rates will become more expensive as of tomorrow" chairman Joel da Silva Gois of the Business Community Association Curaçao (VBC) sighs, and adds a calculation example: "If a store paid 100,000 guilders per month on electricity costs, this will now be 119,500 guilders under equal circumstances. Those 20,000 guilders should be passed on to the customer."

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According to Da Silva Gois, it is exactly in this respect that private companies differ ‘in a logical way’ from governmental companies.
He finds that Aqualectra itself is an example of the aforementioned. "A company is only sound when it succeeds in putting money aside for timely maintenance and necessary investments, and not when it breaks even".
When you encounter costs increases that you do not control, such as the price of petroleum on the world market, there is nothing else you can do, but to also increase your rates. When aforementioned costs decrease, you immediately lower your rates as well. However, with Aqualectra you see that the government plays the nabob by keeping the rates low while the production costs increase. When you realize that the number of homes and establishments are increasing and that the BOO has become a fiasco, then you should know that Aqualectra would thus contend with a capacity- as well as an income-deficit.

An income deficit means debts with suppliers and no money to invest in more capacity or to keep existing installations going. When a manager lacks the courage to timely adjust utility rates, then in short term you will end up with Dominican situations with daily apagones (black outs)."
Therefore, Da Silva Gois does not expect any entrepreneur to start pre-financing. According to him, the higher rates for water and electricity, respectively 19.5 percent and 5 percent, will certainly be passed on to the customers to prevent that salaries and suppliers are not paid and companies closing down.
"As soon as the cost of doing business decreases again, you will also lower your prices as you do not want to be the most expensive in your market." Da Silva Gois expects that the population will face difficult choices as utility products provide for basic needs, and cannot be dropped from the family budget.
Other entrepreneurs stated before the Amigoe that pre-financing is still occurring as Aqualectra originally requested electricity- and water-increases of respectively 29 and 7.5 percent, while a choice was made for 19.5 and 5 percent for humanitarian reasons.

However, lawyer Irving Moenir Alam of Aqualectra agrees with the chosen approach. Rational considerations by no means exclude social-humane aspects, according to him."Even if we also had to deal with an actual regulator, a choice could still be made to spread the catching up over 4½ years instead of four.You secure the payments to suppliers while you devote a little more space for the making good of your cash. Moreover, when the world prices continue to decrease, you will bounce back sooner."Moenir Alam urges the population to be economical more than ever before and to well-consider the consumption of water and electricity. Apart from that, Moenir Alam denies that Aqualectra is instituting legal proceedings in connection with ‘a faulty BOO’. However, the utility company, Marubeni and the Curaçao refinery are discussing plans for maintenance and renovations of the BOO, which should result to positive changes at the beginning of next year.