Safe jobs vs lower bills

AMIDST CONSUMER complaints about the high cost of electricity, the Minister responsible for Energy says Government is opting to keep jobs safe rather than spend limited resources on fuel subsidies that could lower bills.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Senator Darcy Boyce, in an interview with the SATURDAY?SUN, suggested that the Freundel Stuart administration did not have the funds to do both.
Asked if there was anything Government could do to ease Barbados Light and Power customers, Boyce said the high and increasing cost of oil limited options, adding that since there were little or no taxes on the Light & Power surcharge, “the only thing that we could do is a straight subsidy.”
When questioned whether that was a route the Government would go, Boyce responded: “Look at our deficit…We prefer to make sure that what funds we have we use them to keep people employed and that we don’t increase our deficit more than we have to at this stage.” (DP)
 
Full story in today’s SATURDAY SUN.