PRIVATE WATER UTILITY – DAIRY SPRING LIMITED – SUBMITS TARIFF APPLICATION
(KINGSTON, Jamaica; 2025 January 15): The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) is reviewing a tariff application submitted by private water supplier Dairy Spring Limited (DSL).
DSL is a privately owned limited liability company that supplies and distributes water within St. Ann. Its customer base consists of large commercial entities such as condominiums and shopping centres. The OUR last approved rates for DSL on 2020 March 5.
The water utility has proposed a 100% increase in rates, stating that this is intended to recover losses in earnings and cover increased operating costs resulting from what it says is a 33% increase in inflation (2020 January to 2024 June) and a 21.5% devaluation of the Jamaican Dollar against the United States Dollar (2020 January 2 to 2024 October 31). Loan repayments, planned capital improvements and increased efficiency were also highlighted as the rationale for the proposed new rates.
The requested implementation date for new rates is 2025 March 1. To help mitigate the bill impact, the water utility has indicated that if the rates are approved, it will implement the new rates in two tiers, with 50% of the increase taking effect upon approval and the remaining 50% six months thereafter.
DSL’s Licence allows for the computation of…
