Yvonne Ba­boolal

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Nizam Baksh says the Gov­ern­ment in­tends to in­crease sub­si­dies for elec­tric­i­ty and wa­ter rates.He made the an­nounce­ment at Thurs­day's post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing. In an­nounc­ing in­creased fi­nan­cial help for cit­i­zens to pay their light and wa­ter rates, Baksh said it was be­cause the Gov­ern­ment had a good so­cial con­science."To­day, Cab­i­net agreed to do an­oth­er re­view (of the Util­i­ties As­sis­tance Pro­gramme) be­cause of the Gov­ern­ment's car­ing ca­pac­i­ty and good so­cial con­science," he said.

The UAP is a so­cial in­ter­ven­tion strat­e­gy in­tro­duced by the Gov­ern­ment in 2010 to pro­vide fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to el­i­gi­ble cit­i­zens to en­sure their con­tin­ued ac­cess to wa­ter and elec­tric­i­ty, the min­istry's Web site said.Re­lief un­der the UAP comes in the form of a sub­sidy, which the Wa­ter & Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) and the Trinidad & To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) ap­ply to the ben­e­fi­cia­ry's util­i­ty bills.WASA cus­tomers us­ing an ex­ter­nal wa­ter sup­ply are giv­en $140 a year and those with an in­ter­nal wa­ter sup­ply $200. In the case of T&TEC cus­tomers, those who use 400kwh or less are en­ti­tled to $114 per bill or a max­i­mum of $684 a year.

Re­cip­i­ents were orig­i­nal­ly ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the Se­nior Cit­i­zens' Pen­sion, Dis­abil­i­ty Grant or any oth­er pub­lic as­sis­tance from the Min­istry of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment.Baksh said Cab­i­net agreed Thurs­day to do yet an­oth­er re­view of the UAP. More sub­si­dies are com­ing for WASA cus­tomers, too, he said. "Peo­ple can now ap­ply for an ex­ten­sion of grants un­der the UAP. For in­stance, the min­istry can now pro­vide up to $1,500 for a wa­ter tank."Faith-based and non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions can al­so get up to $2,000 for a wa­ter tank for their fa­cil­i­ties, and Baksh said Cab­i­net al­so agreed to ex­tend the range of those who could re­ceive as­sis­tance.Any­one who has an in­come un­der $3,500 can ap­ply for the grants, he said. Forms are avail­able on­line and at dis­trict T&TEC and WASA of­fices.