Lightening up a burden

Several lawmakers are calling on the government to go back on its decision to hike electricity tariffs by 15 per cent, starting this January, since the price of oil dropped by about 50 per cent.

The energy minister says that the pricing mechanism for electricity has already been determined in order to offset the huge accumulated losses, to the tune of JD 1.2 billion, sustained by the National Electric Power Company.

The minister said NEPCO’s losses are due to the disruption of the flow of Egyptian gas and the consequent reliance on the more expensive heavy oil.

As such the government says it wishes to cut down NEPCO’s losses, admittedly a legitimate and necessary step.

But the losses, again, were due to the fact that the cheaper Egyptian gas is no longer available and the cost of the heavy oil that NEPCO had to resort to is high.

Why, then, stick to a predetermined pricing mechanism and ignore the fact that the causes are no longer valid?

Why not use flexibility in tackling a problem?

Policies should not be inscribed in stone. They can be made and changed according to circumstances.

Keeping the 2014 electricity tariffs would benefit NEPCO since its running cost is much less now that oil prices are considerably lower.

The sensible thing to do under the prevailing circumstances is for NEPCO to use the windfall oil prices present to start getting out of the red, and not burden the population with yet more fees.