BY HG HELPS AND KARYL WALKER Sunday, May 18, 2014
CITIZENS numbered among the over 200,000 whom the Jamaica Public Service Company said often steal electricity, have, among other things, pointed the finger of blame on the electricity provider, going as far as calling the organisation a thieving one.
The Jamaica Observer, in interviews with mainly inner-city folk, was given various reasons regarding why they stole the commodity.
While the cry of not having the financial resources to pay often hefty power bills surfaced frequently in the discourse, the element of taking revenge on the JPSCo also popped up regularly, with some insisting that there is often too much powerplay by the utility company in sending out "inflated and unreasonable" bills.
"We tief from JPS because them too tief as a company, and tief from tief, God laugh," said one resident of a Western St Andrew community repeating an age-old Jamaican saying.
"We get regularised already and JPS tell us that we will get the first month free. But that's a lie, a trap, because after that they start sending $10,000 bill, then it start move up to $15,000 and the next ones after that gone into the $20,000 region.
"We don't have no washing machine, it's just two fan, one TV set, a small office fridge and light we use, so how come the bill reach $20,000 inna three months ... how come?" stated the resident whose family has again gone the illegal route.
Similar sentiments were expressed by another member of the community, who insisted that the JPSCo had often tricked people into regularising their accounts, only to hike electricity rates without justification.
"They just lure you into a trap. We don't want fi tief light, but we cyaa do better, because we did go the proper route before and everything start out well and all of a sudden, everything just start go up.
"JPS find every way fi tek back from you. So even if you want to go legal, they force you not to by padding your bill. They really need competition," said the resident,who, like others, declined to be photographed, and asked that his name be kept private.
The JPSCo has warned that it will be going all-out to chase energy thieves off the grid, but some insist that they will continue to fight the company's efforts.
The Sunday Observer also spoke to people who have never paid for electricity all their lives and have no intention of doing so, no matter how the JPSCo rants and raves.
Delving into financial reasons, one resident of another community said that the cost of 'light' was too high and on his minimum wage it was way above his pay range.
"Me a small man who cut yard for a living. Me can't find the 10 and 15 thousand dollar what me hear some people whose yard me cut a bawl say them have to pay," the man said dryly. more
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