The re­port re­gard­ing the pro­posed elec­tric­i­ty in­crease by the Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion (RIC) re­mains be­fore the Cab­i­net sub-com­mit­tee as care­ful de­lib­er­a­tions con­tin­ue on just how it would be in­tro­duced and the over­all im­pact it would have on cit­i­zens.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from re­porters fol­low­ing the reded­i­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny of the Tacarigua Post Of­fice, East­ern Main Road, Dins­ley yes­ter­day – Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les said it was high­ly un­like­ly the in­crease would go in­to ef­fect be­fore the end of this year.

As part of the rate re­view process, the T&T Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) would have sub­mit­ted its busi­ness plan to the RIC – in which it had been hop­ing to get $2 bil­lion more in rev­enue.

Gon­za­les said how­ev­er, “The RIC’s fi­nal rec­om­men­da­tion is far less than what T&TEC pro­posed.”

He went on to ex­plain that even if the au­thor­i­ties were to move for­ward with the fi­nal de­ter­mi­na­tion ap­proved by the RIC by the end of 2024, “There would still be a short­fall of over $500 mil­lion on the part of T&TEC.”