PNP promises $3,000 off light bills

Eight years after reneging on a promise to abolish general consumption tax (GCT) on electricity, the People's National Party (PNP) is again promising to make light bills cheaper for consumers.

This time around, the socialist party says it will give a monthly $3,000 credit on all electricity bills for residential customers.

The party has also promised to give residential customers of the National Water Commission (NWC) a $1,000 credit on water bills each month.

The JPS has approximately 500,000 residential customers, which means that the cost of the credit would be $1.5 billion monthly or $18-billion per year.

At the same time, the cost of the credit to the estimated 350,000 residential customers would be $350 million per month or $4.2 billion per year.

Vice-president of the PNP, Damian Crawford, said that its Wealthy Plan "is essentially a quality living package for all Jamaicans, geared towards the social transformation of communities by delivering basic amenities to every citizen across the island."

It is not the first time that the PNP has sought to get the nod from the electorate with a promise of lower utility bills. In the 2011 election, the Portia Simpson Miller-led team said that it would remove GCT from light bills for residential users. However, her administration changed the way in which GCT is charged on light bills but did not keep its election promise.