Govt. to pay Bosai $741M more to generate power for Linden

Aug 13, 2024 News

Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d), Mark Phillips

…despite $US2oM was approved in 2024 budget 

Kaieteur News – The Parliamentary Committee of Supply last week approved the sum of $741 million that will be paid to Chinese bauxite company, Bosai to generate electricity for Linden.

Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips told the Committee that the subsidy of $740,970,626 to LINMINE (Community Power) will cover electricity cost for Linden for the rest of the year.

Notably, according to the 2024 budget estimates, the sum of $4 billion (US$20M) was allocated to LINMINE. The mining company has an agreement with the Government of Guyana (GoG) to subsidize electricity cost for Lindeners.

During one his press conferences earlier this year, Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo had disclosed the government’s plan to link Linden with the East Bank of Demerara (EBD) to provide electricity and remove dependency on BOSAI to generate power for the mining town. Jagdeo had described the current power purchasing arrangement with the bauxite company as an exorbitant one. He said, “…we’re paying Bosai now, a substantial sum of money every year to supply power to the community, at very exorbitant rates… because we have to buy the power from them.”

• Bharrat Jagdeo, Bosai, generate, Linden, Parliamentary Committee of Supply, Vice President (VP)