NIA CHARLESTOWN (August 31, 2022) – The fuel surcharge applied by the Nevis Electricity Company Limited (NEVLEC) to the monthly electricity bill for domestic users will be removed as of the next billing cycle in September 2022.

Hon. Mark Brantley, Premier of Nevis, made the announcement at his monthly press conference on August 30, 2022, while disclosing the arrangement made by the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) to reduce consumers’ electricity bills. The increasing price of oil on the world market has resulted in the increasing cost of electricity production by NEVLEC.

“We’ve come up with a plan to eliminate the fuel surcharge for domestic users…We propose ultimately to eliminate the fuel surcharge for everyone but in this first step, we will eliminate the fuel surcharge for residential customers only.

“The NIA will provide an additional $500,000 per month to NEVLEC. That will take therefore, our payment for this subsidy per month to a total of $1.75 million, and the good people at NEVLEC are telling us that if we can give them $1.75 million per month, and the actual surcharge remains on or about 77 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) – that’s what the actual surcharge was in the month of July – that they can reduce with that subsidy the fuel surcharge for residential customers to zero, and so that is what we proposed to do,” he said.

The Premier, who is also the Minister of Finance, noted that the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) and its Cabinet had for weeks agonised over the increasing cost of fuel surcharge to consumers and though they had taken a decision to assist NEVLEC with a $2.5million subsidy. The move provided some assistance but the added funds would allow NEVLEC to eliminate the cost to domestic users.

“The commercial consumers will continue to pay the fuel surcharge. However, we will cap the fuel surcharge to them at 65 cents. So it means that they too will get some relief. That is the plan.

“Now, of course, the plan can go awry if fuel prices were to escalate exponentially going forward but based on what we are seeing that prices might have stabilised and/or prices might actually be a bit lower for August, the good people at NEVLEC, the technicians, are saying to us that this plan is doable,” he said.