NWC to Increase Water, & Sewerage Charges By 11.7% Effective May

Customers of the National Water Commission (NWC) will again see an increase in their bills, effective May 1, 2022. The rates the company says will increase by 11.7 per cent. Opposition Spokesperson on Finance Julian Robinson says the hike will only add to the burden on consumers.

Customers of the NWC are once again bracing themselves for an increase in their bills which will take effect at the beginning of May. The NWC says the charges in water, sewerage, and service rates and miscellaneous fees will go up by 11.7 per cent. The utility company says the adjustments are a result of the resetting of the base rates of components used to calculate what it calls the Price Adjustment Mechanism, PAM. The company explains further that the components used in calculating are the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the exchange rate, and electrical charge.

These factors the company says are outside of its control and are in line with the Interim Tariff Determination of 2019 granted by the Office of the Utility’s Regulation (OUR).

The Opposition Spokesperson on Finance describes the increase as a further burden to consumers – his companies previously announced an increase of 4.7 per cent that took effect in February of this year, which they say was due to higher electricity costs.

Efforts to get a response from the utility company proved unsuccessful. Watch the full report;