Dear Editor,

Once upon a time, not too long ago, in the community where I reside, the taxi men were charging $6,000 for an airport trip. What this means is that they would pick you up at your house, drop you off at the airport, and collect their money. Alternatively, they could pick you up at the airport, drop you off at your house, and collect.

One day we woke up and the cost was increased to a whopping $15,000. And then, all of a sudden, the airport trips the taxi men had become so used to dried up.

As it turned out, the people, after careful deliberations, had concluded that a better option was to simply rent a car for $6,000, put another $5,000 worth of gas in it, and have a family member or friend do the trip. Money would be saved and the car could still be used for the rest of the day, however they chose.

Now, to my mind, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), with its now-routine increases, is not unlike those taxi men.

For quite some time there have been rumblings about another impending increase in the cost of electricity. With the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the price of oil soaring sky-high, it is not a matter of if, but when we will be bludgeoned with possibly the mother of electricity bill increases.

The people of Jamaica, however, have been doing some careful deliberations. These deliberations have over time resulted in many large consumers of electricity, such as factories and schools, opting to hop off the JPS grid and go the way of solar power.

The JPS, in the meantime, intent on milking every last cent of its guaranteed rate of return from the Jamaican populace, has consistently taken the easy way out and simply raised the cost to the rest of its hostage customers.

The JPS, believe it or not, can still make things right and show some degree of contrition by limiting the coming increase. All it needs to do is go out there and pick the low-hanging fruit. Deal with the issue of electricity theft being carried out across the length and breadth of Jamaica.

I for one, though, won’t be holding my breath.

At times I wonder what the JPS will look like 10 years on when the majority of Jamaica has gone solar or is stealing electricity, and the few who are left on the JPS grid are being asked to fork out $100,000 per month, which they don’t have.

I suspect the majority shareholder will by then have sold their interests to the minority shareholder.

Coretta Burgess

Corettaburgess@yahoo.com