The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) takes note of Nickoy Brown’s letter to the editor published in the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 entitled ‘The OUR has lost its true purpose’. The OUR welcomes scrutiny of its operations and its decisions. At the same time, being mindful of the
negative impact of inaccurate information in thepublic sphere, we consider it an obligation to respond with facts to opinions based on inaccuracies.
The writer started off on the premise that the National Water Commission (NWC) was granted a 5.1 per cent increase by the OUR. This is not correct, there is no increase in the NWC’s rates. As explained through a media release and interviews, every year the NWC is allowed to apply to the OUR for a review of its annual price adjustment mechanism (ANPAM), which results
in base rate adjustments that have no impact on thebill customers would have otherwise received. To beclear, every month there is an adjustment to
customers’ bills on top of the base rate due to the price adjustment mechanism (PAM) for costs the NWC faces that are outside of its control, namely the foreign exchange rate, consumer price index, and electricity rate…

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