PNG Power Limited (PPL) chief executive officer Patrick Mara is tightlipped over the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission’s (ICCC) report to reject the planned 9.16% tariff increase.
ICCC Commissioner and CEO Thomas Abe said in a press statement this week that the purported tariff increase for electricity in 2008 had not been approved by ICCC.
Mr Abe accused Mr Mara of “totally making misleading and inaccurate remarks, because PPL cannot independently increase electricity tariff without the approval of the regulator.
He said the ICCC rejected PPL’s annual tariff adjustment submission because it failed to comply with the statutory deadlines specified under the Electricity Regulatory Contract (ERC).
PPL was well aware of the statutory requirements and due processes, which are built into the regulatory contract and it has been in existence since 2002, Mr Abe said.
Mr Mara had earlier said the cause of this refusal was that Mr Abe had determined the late provision of the official CPI figure from the National Statistics Office, which further resulted in a late submission of PPL’s calculations to ICCC by three weeks.
Mr Mara had said this was not acceptable.
However, Mr Abe said the commission “denied” the assertions made by Mr Mara that the delay in submitting its annual tariff adjustment proposal was mainly due to non-availability of CPI figures.
“It was totally wrong and misleading of Mr Mara because other regulated entities were also provided the same CPI figures upon which their tariff submission were considered and approvals made in due time,” Mr Abe said.
The National contacted PPL yesterday to get comments from Mr Mara but a PPL officer declined to comment.