The Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2003, the shortest piece of legislation to come before the Anguilla House of Assembly in recent days, took a few seconds to be read by the Clerk but the protracted debate lasted for about nine and a half hours on Tuesday, February 4. That is an idea of the depth of the controversy that surrounded it from beginning to end. The members of the House finished that portion of the Order of Business about 9.30 p.m.

The prolonged matter related to the Government’s introduction of a 5% environmental levy based on a percentage of the total income of the Anguilla Electricity Company (ANGLEC) or on such other basis as the Governor [in Council] may determine by regulation. The original decision, as stated in the Budget Address last December, was for the tax to be collected by ANGLEC from electricity consumers after appearing on their bills. According to Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming “there has been a diversion because of legal implications.” The opposition members in the House however took the view in their passionate arguments that the tax would be passed on to the people of the island. The Government side rebutted by making the case that the Anguillian populace had a duty to help pay for the island’s public services which in this case included keeping the environment clean.

The Bill, introduced by Minister of Finance Victor Banks, came under a critical analysis at the outset by Second Nominated Member Claudel Romney, whose appointment makes him an independent thinker although he sits on the Government side of the House. “What was said in the House at the time of the Budget debate was fine,” he said. “If you are going to use ANGLEC as a medium to collect an environmental tax that the Government deemed necessary to impose whether we agree with it or not, that’s the Government’s prerogative…When you back off from that and you are going to pour it into ANGLEC’s operations this thing snowballs and is deeper than deep. It just can’t work.” He felt that the levy would reduce the profits of the company in which shares to be sold to the public.

Mr. Romney said environmental tax was not an operation, investment or profit of ANGLEC and was unrelated to it, noting that the company had its own responsibility to comply with international standards to ensure the protection of the environment. He stated that he had difficulty accepting that an environmental levy as proposed could be assumed or adopted as part of the operational cost of ANGLEC. He was of the view that it would take months for the company to go through a process of verifying tariffs to recover the cost of the tax.
He suggested that the matter should be withdrawn or if it remained before the House it should reflect the spirit of what was discussed in the House. “This is a 180 degree turn and change and I do not support it,” Mr. Romney, a Chartered Accountant added.

Opposition Leader Hubert Hughes was concerned that after having been introduced and made into law the environmental tax would be increased occasionally and laid on the table without debate. He was of the opinion that ANGLEC was being used as a collection agency for Government and suggested that it was a matter for the Treasury or the revenue-collecting Task Force.

Hughes’ colleague, Edison Baird, said that in effect the amendment sought to transfer legislative authority from the House of Assembly to the Executive Council. He called for a suspension of the Bill and for a competent and independent local lawyer to give his or her legal opinion on the amendment which he thought could have far-reaching legal and constitutional ramifications. “Even if Government imposes the tax on ANGLEC, ultimately it is really being imposed on the public,” the opposition member observed.

The other opposition member, Albert Hughes also criticised the Bill which he saw as a further taxation on the people of the island.

Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming pointed out that it was never intended for the money to come out of ANGLEC’s coffers without the company recovering it from somewhere. “If you want us to be clear cut, we accept the fact that we agreed for this 5% and if ANGLEC has to recover it, it must come from the people because that is exactly where we want it to come from,” he stated.

Ministerial colleagues Eric Reid and Kenneth Harrigan and Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Samuel Connor, joined Mr. Fleming and Mr. Banks in supporting the Government’s decision saying the money was to help with the provision of the island’s public services.

The Bill was passed without any amendment.

ANGLEC Power Station at Corito

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