Unanswered questions remain after Connect Interview
Janet Lawrence and Lawrence Muranganwa visited the Saint FM studio on Wednesday to further explain why Connect needs to increase electricity and water charges. All prices are going up, so really it is not a surprise electricity and water need to go up too. Janet said Connect had agreed on a subsidy from SHG for this year of £1,767 million and that the increase in the price of oil is the rea[1]son for it. That is the simple explanation; many other questions come off the back of that. The first question is why now? The price of oil peaked over a year ago, in June 2022. Oil prices have been on a falling trend ever since; by almost $50 a barrel at times. Energy companies in other countries are now reducing prices. Admittedly, this is after increasing them last year to the grief of all their customers, but not their profits. It seems Connect and the price adjustment procedure is slow to react to changing fuel prices. If Connect has been carrying the additional cost of fuel for over a year, how much additional cost has there been because they have done so? Debt costs money.