WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-04-05 Time: 05:00:23 Posted By: News Poster
NAMIBIANS cannot relax this Easter weekend after hearing about the huge hike in electricity tariffs.
Instead they must spend the weekend drafting their views about the 35 per cent electricity increase proposed by NamPower in order to submit their objections by the deadline of Tuesday morning to the Electricity Control Board (ECB).
The outrageous increase is a sign of a lack of planning for an electricity crisis by the power utility.
By July 1 the salary increases of many low wage earners in our economy, like domestic workers who perhaps got a N$50 increase in December, will be completely eroded.
Worse still, as the electricity increase actually affects not only their consumption but will also have a knock-on impact on many other products like foodstuffs, they will be worse off than last year.
As it stands now the 35 per cent increase will mean an electricity bill increase of up to N$60 per household in townships like Katutura.
We cannot even contemplate the impact this hike will have on any large retail business in Windhoek which may pay around N$200 000 per month. That will mean a further increase of around N$70 000 on their electricity bill.
This will have a serious ripple effect on consumers as food retailers claim not to have much influence over the price of their products and generally pass on increases to their clients.
If approved as suggested by NamPower, the electricity increase will affect Namibia’s general inflation rate, the price of fuel will go up and increase the transport cost and, as stated earlier, the retail industry will push up prices to recover costs.
The bottom line is that severe budget cuts by households across the country will undermine the economic recovery which the Finance Minister, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, said she was hoping for.
We won’t even go into the knock-on effect it will have on the mining and manufacturing industries which are also recovering from last year’s economic crisis.
What is also shocking about this week’s announcement is the fact that it came into the open only a few days before the start of the Easter weekend, ambushing consumers with this short-notice price bombshell.
In our view this is an almost deliberate move meant to catch the consumer off guard.
We know that NamPower want to ostensibly ringfence its electricity business at the consumers’ expense. Last year NamPower asked Cabinet to help them break even on the delivery of electricity. They initially planned to reach a “cost-reflective level” by this year, asking for an 18 per cent increase but were only granted 15 per cent.
That in turn extended the “cost-reflective level” to the 2011-12 financial year.
Cost reflectivity means that the power utility is allowed by the regulator (ECB) to recover all costs of supplying electricity from the consumer.
Thus last year NamPower claimed that they needed an increase of 18 per cent for two years to recover their cost. Now they have asked for double that.
What has changed to push up their demand?
Would it perhaps be the result of problems with the US$40 million we pumped into the Zimbabwean economy through funding Hwange and the frequent breakdowns which threaten its continued delivery of 150 megawatts of power to NamPower? Or is NamPower struggling financially?
Whatever the answer, maybe granting the request will result in exorbitantly high municipal accounts which already hard-pressed consumers can ill afford.
The public needs to get itself into gear to protest these increases. It is time for consumers not just to complain, but to do something about it. We urge Namibians to make the time this long weekend to send their protests to [email protected], or fax (061) 37 4304/5. Let us not take this lying down.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 1 April 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201004050237.html?viewall=1