The T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) is seek­ing clar­i­ty in to­day’s con­sul­ta­tions host­ed by the Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­try Com­mis­sion.

Hilton Trinidad and Con­fer­ence Cen­tre is set to host the lat­est round of pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions con­cern­ing the pro­posed in­crease in elec­tric­i­ty rates.

Pres­i­dent of the TTMA Tri­cia Coos­al said many of the as­so­ci­a­tion’s mem­bers were con­cerned about the po­ten­tial in­crease and its im­pact on their op­er­a­tions.

Coos­al said, “The TTMA looks for­ward to the con­sul­ta­tion with Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­try Com­mis­sion this Wednes­day at the Hilton. An ini­tial sur­vey of the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor sug­gests there would be an im­pact on the sec­tor. How­ev­er it would be pre­ma­ture to state the ex­tent of the im­pact pri­or to the con­sul­ta­tion with the RIC where the sec­tor hopes to get more clar­i­ty on the pro­posed rates. “

Coos­al said a sig­nif­i­cant chunk of her mem­ber­ship would be a part of the con­sul­ta­tions.

“TTMA would be joined by some of our mem­bers that will al­so be giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­sult with the RIC di­rect­ly. We look for­ward to a mean­ing­ful en­gage­ment which would re­dound to the ben­e­fit of the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor and by ex­ten­sion con­sumers in T&T,” she said.

In Jan­u­ary, RIC an­nounced its sug­gest­ed in­crease in elec­tric­i­ty rates, cit­ing that the in­crease was nec­es­sary to help aid T&TEC with its ris­ing main­te­nance costs, point­ing out that the lim­it­ed rev­enue the util­i­ty had gar­nered played a part in the in­creas­ing num­ber of out­ages ex­pe­ri­enced around the coun­try in re­cent years.

Elec­tric­i­ty rates were last in­creased in 2009.