by Kevon Browne
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN)—Premier of Nevis, Hon. Mark Brantley, offered an apology to Nevisians for the sudden implementation of the fuel surcharge on electricity bills without prior warning.
“NEVLEC reintroduce the service charge, the fuel service charge without advance notice. I want to apologise publicly for that. It is not the way that I try to do business and I can only apologise. I was told once when you’re wrong, you just say you’re sorry and hope that people forgive you. We should have put out something in advance. There was, I think, a communication error on our part or miscommunication that is between the NIA and NEVLEC. And as a consequence, the fuel surcharge was applied without first advising the public. I apologise sincerely for that and we have since tried to make amends by putting out the necessary information as to why and how it will impact.”
The apology follows a wave of public complaints regarding drastically inflated utility bills after the Nevis Electricity Company Limited (NEVLEC) reintroduced the mechanism.
The Nevis Island Administration (NIA) spent $28.9 million between September 2022 and April 2026 to cushion households from oil price shocks, ensuring zero domestic fuel surcharge fees for nearly four years.
“Now, some may argue that whatever point the notice came, it will still cause hardship for people because in some cases, people have said their bill has doubled. I said to our people that all I can do is to remind us all that the government has really been trying its best. And from 2022, the end of COVID, until June 2026, no household in NEV has paid a fuel surcharge, none. Over those four years, I’m told it cost the government $28.9 million to subsidise every household on this island in terms of the fuel surcharge. And then for businesses, we kept the fuel surcharge at 65 cents. So anything over that, the government paid for. And so we are asking now, we’re basically saying to the public, the government simply cannot continue. The difficulties caused by the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz were so severe. And remember, this increase is not going to affect at once, meaning that even though the war started and prices started to escalate, we still held the line for as long as we could.”
Sustained global oil market instability forced NEVLEC to implement the change to recover fuel purchasing costs and avoid widespread service disruptions.
Actual domestic fuel costs is $0.79/kWh.
To minimise the immediate sting, NEVLEC temporarily discounted this to $0.69/kWh for domestic consumers.
Premier Brantley has explicitly committed to partnering with utility technicians to re-examine the surcharge structure and deliver financial relief as soon as global oil conditions stabilise.
“Some argue now that prices are trending downwards, and we welcome that. We hope the Strait of Hormuz reopens. And so we welcome that. And I will make that commitment that as prices stabilise, so too, your bill will reflect that stabilisation. So if you realise the notices that we sent out, we said this was a temporary measure because the idea is that the hikes that we have seen will simply make the generation of electricity uneconomic and unsustainable for the island of Nevis. And so we are saying that as things stabilise, we will pass on those savings to the consumer. And that is what we will try to do consistently with our efforts throughout, trying to shield our people from these impacts. I should also add that our programmes will provide free electricity to seniors and the like. Those continue. So those aren’t impacted. But on the fuel surcharge, we simply couldn’t hold the line any longer.”
The NIA has formally stated that this is not designed as a permanent billing arrangement.
Citizens are being urged to implement aggressive energy-saving habits, such as washing full loads, unplugging idle chargers, and turning off unnecessary air conditioning, to manage the immediate financial impact.
