Power, water, to explain high bills

GOTHATAONE MOENG
Staff Writer | Monday March 26, 2012 00:00

 

The GCC is holding a full council meeting starting today until Friday. Former mayor Veronica Lesole will, during the week, move that the council invite the two service providers to explain why their rates are so high.  Lesole will also move that the BPC introduce prepaid electricity to Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) areas since the current billing system charges are not manageable.

The BPC recently announced that they will increase power tariffs this year for the third year running. The corporation increased tariffs in May 2010, and again in June 2011, and are likely to raise charges after their financial year comes to a close on April 30. The BPC astronomical rates are draining consumers who find themselves paying more than double the monthly bills they used to pay before 2010.  Sources within the BPC have told The Monitor's sister publication Mmegi that the corporation is pushing for a 30 percent increase.

There have also been complaints from the corporation's customers about unexpectedly high bills, which were much higher than customers' previous payments.  The explanation by the BPC for the spike in bills has been technical glitches faced by their new smart metres.  The technical glitches had forced the corporation to issue estimated bills, and in some cases customers had not had bills for three months so were faced with a bill accumulated over three months. Meanwhile, Ndiwaani Kenosi of the Botswana Congress Party is expected to move that the council resolve to ask the Minister of Local Government to table a bill in Parliament seeking to link the payment of rates and service levy to the payment of utilities.