Dominica govt purchased DOMLEC shares 28.6 percent less than listed value: PM Skerrit

The third meeting of the second session of the tenth parliament of Dominica was conveyed on Monday morning, where Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit addressed several issues.  He stated that the government has access to Dominica Electricity Services (DOMLEC). "Emera proposed to sell the shares at the market price listed for DOMLEC shares on the Eastern Caribbean Stock Exchange, which is EC$3.50 per share. At that price, the government would have had to pay a total of EC$18.9 million for these shares,". "However, we are happy to report to the House and the people of Dominica that following month of intense and cordial negotiations, the government purchased the shares at a total of US$5.0 million, or EC$13.5 million or 28.6 percent less than the listed value," stated Prime Minister. He stated that the current listed price of a DOMLEC share (that is, EC$3.50); and the government only bought back 51.9 percent of the shares.

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This means if the United Workers had not sold the 72 percent of the shares that were government-owned for $21.0 million, these shares would have been worth at least $26.3 million today,"."The dividend that DOMLEC has paid to its shareholders since the sale by the UWP in 1997; 72 percent of this would have been income for the Government and the country," he further explained. Furthermore, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit stated that in the past twelve financial years from 2009 to 2020, DOMLEC paid dividends totalling $24.8 million (the only years during that period when there were no dividends were in 2018 and 2019 because of Hurricane Maria)."Of the $24.8 million paid in dividend during 2009-2020, 72 percent or $17.9 million of this amount would have gone to the Government's  Treasury to meet the needs of our Dominican people,". Besides this, Prime Minister also addressed the issue of the cost of petroleum and petroleum products caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. "The Russia-Ukraine war resulted in a corresponding increase in the cost of electricity. Your government is doing everything within its control to reduce the impact on families and businesses," stated Prime Minister.He said the government urged the Independent Regulatory Commission (the IRC) to accelerate its review of the electricity tariffs while the government continues to push on to build and commission the geothermal plant. "We are confident that with a reduction in the tariffs by the IRC, we can experience a reduction in the electricity rates,".