I've just received a notice from PowerGen that my rates will increase later this month.

I suppose it's about time, as prices haven't increased here for several years, but the daytime rate seems to have taken a sharp rise.

Current pricing:
Day 6.75p. per kWh
Night 2.87p. per kWh

New rates:
Day 10.49p. for first 200 units per quarter,
then 8.21p. per kWh
Night 3.13p. per kWh.

All plus Voracious Administration Tax at 5%.

Yes, my last bill contained those changes already...

As you say; long time no rise, but it doesn't hurt any less!!

Yeah, we never like the cost of anything going up, but I can accept this one.

It's the council tax that I'm not looking forward to when everything comes up for re-evaluation next year. (That's the current British version of property tax on real estate for non-U.K. members, although it has a few twists.)

As a resident of Norfolk, I'm only too aware the following:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/3944025.stm

Youch. That stings...

Don't know what your band/charge is but I pay £1476.00 on an E plate this year.... I forget what my bro said he pays ( Salhouse ), but remember him being less than pleased!

I'm in the North Norfolk District Council , band A, full charge for the 2004/2005 year is £797.92.

I get the 25% discount for living alone, but virrually all we get here for the money is refuse collection. There are no street lights, the roads are completely lacking in drainage, edges not kept trimmed, etc.

We're now set for another electricity price rise

These were the rates which came into force for my power last November:


(What I did forget to mention before was that they removed the standing charge of about £9 per quarter, which offset the increases a little.)


I've just received this quarter's bill with a letter announcing new rates:

Day 11.25p for first 200 units per quarter
then 8.80p per kWh.
Night 3.45p per kwH.

Plus 5% VAT.



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 08-20-2005).]

My latest electrickery bill. Since we pay monthly, this is a years total;

2689kwh at 0.0450 Euro/kwh, = £0.032/ kwh
3797kwh at 0.0765 Euro/kwh = £0.054/ kwh
Looks good, dunnit?

But, ( there is always a but), in addition, local tax E61.90
plus E29.19 contribution to 'public service works'= tax. Plus TVA @ 19.6%(!) = E111.34
Note TVA has been levied on the bloody taxes as well!
Total "smoke and mirrors" = E202.43

Total bill E847.19 = £596.61

In UK I would have paid;
11.25p per first 800kwh =£90.00
8.8p for remaining 2997kwh =£263.73
3.45p for 2689 kwh cheap rate =£92.77
Total £468.82 inc 5% VAT

Yours is over a hundred quid cheaper!

Alan

Good call there Paul,
It gave me cause to have a look at my own power account.
I usually pay mine on-line these days, it saves getting money out of the bank (which you are charged for) and writing cheques (which also attract a fee).
Current kWh charges here are:

• 24 Hour Un-controlled = 20.24c/kWh
• Controlled (Night-Rate)= 14.4c/kWh
• Fixed Charge per kWh= 35.29c
• EC Levy-No Discount= 0.13c

The last part is the new Electricity Commission that the Goverment set up to manage our power use.
Can't say that it has done any good, just another tax on us.
I will also say that I get a 30% rebate on my power account, because I work for the local Power Board.
With prices like this, it all helps.
We were all fooled into having all-Electric houses here not that long ago.
I'm not complaining though, when summer turns up here, I'll be using the Air Conditioning flat out!

Blooming Ada Mike, I just did a few sums and I make that over a NZ$1000,( £390 ), for my consumption of electricity, and over NZ$2000 (£780) for the charges on top! Am I getting something askew?

Mind you, in Britain you'd be paying income tax on that 30% discount, as a "benefit in kind"!

Alan

Alan,
Don't fret too much yet.
My power account never gets above NZ$46/month and that is without the discount.
Being a single person I don't use a lot of electricity and add to that the fact that I'm now working Night-shift, I use even less.
I can bask in the Air-Conditioned (or should I say Temperature-controlled) Control-room at work.
Only thing that I spend electricity on is the odd roast meal (oh and my water heating)and using the microwave to heat up small things.

Trumpy I think theres a lot of NZers who are wondering what our "Elecricity Commission" is doing with all our tax dollars !

When you talk about air-conditioning in Ashburton in summer I assume you mean for heating. Ha Ha Just kidding

Don't get me started on that one.

Certain imported equipment: 4.9% import duty on certain items, then 17.5% VAT added not to the original price but to the duty-inclusive total. They even charge VAT on the postage which has been paid by a U.S. company to the U.S. Post Office.

- Today's lesson in legalized extortion has been brought to you courtesy of H.M. Customs & Excise.

Paul,

How the heck can you stand your "tax, tax, and tax some more" socialist government??? It sounds like they try to drain every last pence out of you.

Peter

Chacun a son gout It might be surprising to you, but Belgium (for instance) is one of several European countries (Spain, France, etc) whose governments are run on models a lot closer to a proper socialist society than the UK.

Belgian tax is higher than the UK (income tax 50%, TVA 21%, property tax 12.5%, disposition tax etc etc etc), and there are many of us (I'm one) who prefer it. Who was it who said that taxes are a sign of civilisation?

I could not bear to live in a country where there is no redistribution of wealth and no investment in proper public services.

Apologies to all, because this is way off topic.

j


[This message has been edited by jooles (edited 08-26-2005).]

Jooles.
If you love being impoverished by the lazy, bone-idle, useless and feckless, please send all your spare cash to me!
Alan

Alan,

Like you, I used to live in the UK. I left when the last Conservative government was in power, because the cuts to services like transport, education and the rest were all contributing factors to a pretty low quality of life. For sure, the government let me keep more pocket money, but in society there was also more selfishness and, it seemes to me, a dwindling sense of civic responsibility.

All I can say is that after I broke my leg last week, thank heavens it is the Belgian service and not the poor old NHS to whom I owe my thanks for being so well-treated. I know the NHS does its best, the nurses and the doctors are truly angels in human form, and UK pals of mine do say that it is slowly improving, but it is a scandal (in my view) that the situation was ever allowed to deteriorate to that extent in the first place.

Example two: I live in Brussels and work in Antwerp, commute by train, and come snow, rain, hell or high water those trains are on time, clean, not overcrowded and cheap. In other words, exactly the opposite of Connex Railtrack or whatever it is called now.

It is for reasons like those that I don't begrudge a single cent of the (admittedly high) taxes that the state demands.

As I said, chacun a son gout. I'm sure that life in France must also have its share of attractions (in fact we go there for holidays) but low taxation is probably not one of them

Wasn't it Karl Marx himself who said "I despair of the Belgians; even the proletariat are bourgeoise" or something like that

The main thing is that people are allowed to choose whatever suits them the best.

Let's just say then that my beliefs are far more closely aligned with Rush Limbaugh than with the Belgian government.

Though I have some pretty strong feelings on these matters, I don't think we'd better go any further down that road.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion.....

My apologies for bringing up politics. I know it's one of the unwritten rules of the forum so I should know better.

Peter

Boy,
Did I get a shock and a half today!.
I had a power account for NZ$167.
It stated that I had used 890 kWh in a month.
Considering that my last accounts have said that I used 220-250kWh per month.
That usually equates to $40-46 a month.
Man am I wild or what??!!.
I'm not saying I can't pay it, but there is a principle here, most people would just pay it and not worry.
PoCo discount or no discount, that is just rude!.
Oh and BTW kiwi, did you get a thing with your latest power account saying that the Electricity Commission Levy would be reduced?.
I don't want to talk politics here, but this stinks of it!. GRRR

Trumpy I think the Elecricity Commission is reducing its levy because we've all discovered that they're not actually doing anything.

Yeah but,
Where did the extra 600kWh go?.
GRRR.
I'm not running a dope house here.

Mike,
Many tears ago in the UK, we suddenly 'used' an incredible extra 1000kw from normal in one quarter. I suspected the metre had 'jumped', ( it was inside the house (UK), normal eddy current disc type ). Anyway, the poco refused to admit this could be a problem, and I had to stump up the money. Funny, they changed the meter for a new one though.....
Is this possible?
Alan

Trumpy ! Perhaps your neighbours are running the dope house. Check for extension leads running over their fence and into your garage.

Stranger things have happened. ( even in Ashburton.

Hmmm... I wonder if I could argue the same principle with property tax and my local council......

Pauluk I think you'll find that your Local Council aren't actually reducing your taxes. Instead they are increasing them as the Council gets more efficient at doing nothing.

Note in the paper today:
Is it just me, or is everything just having the price bumped up on it?.
I don't notice that EA is making my wages bigger to compensate for the increase.