Government Support For BEL Reaches $150 Million

Keeping the lights on is coming at a hefty price for taxpayers. Belize Electricity Limited has repeatedly turned to the Briceño administration for financial assistance as it struggles with mounting debt obligations and the rising cost of electricity generation. Now, we have a clearer picture of just how much public money is going into the utility. Prime Minister John Briceño says government assistance to BEL is expected to reach a staggering one hundred and fifty million dollars by the end of December. But what is driving the need for so much support, and how sustainable is this financial arrangement?

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“That is why be the end of December our government will provide over a hundred and fifty million dollars in assistance and prepayments to BEL to help protect Belizeans by keeping the cost low, keeping the utility financially stable, so the can continue to operate and  keeping the cost of electricity as low as possible for Belizean. Under BEL’s plans the will start to produce solar energy, if not by the end of December, somewhere in January. You have probable seen here in Democracia where they are cleaning out land. That will be where they will put in fourteen megawatts of solar power. There is another company that is suppose to come online by March with the solar power and the batteries by June. And they are working with Santander and BSI. They believe that by doing that they will not have to buy the expensive energy. They can buy energy form Mexico when the price is low, then we can buy that which is way cheaper.”

 

Prime Minister Briceño says the money is being used to prevent BEL from passing those costs on to consumers.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: