Power bills rock families
TASMANIANS are struggling to pay their bills because of soaring power prices, the State Opposition said yesterday.
Energy spokesman Matthew Groom said a report by the Economic Regulator showed 16,149 Tasmanians received power disconnection notices in the first three months of this year.
The number of disconnection notices had increased 20 per cent from the 13,679 in the previous quarter.
However, a spokesman for Energy Minister Bryan Green said Mr Groom had quoted figures from the wrong quarter they were from December, 2010, rather than the first three months of this year.
He said the actual disconnections, as opposed to disconnection notices, had dropped from 440 to 416 for the December quarter.
Mr Groom said the Economic Regulator had confirmed that in the first three months of the year 2333 Tasmanians had been forced to embark on a payment plan because they could not afford to pay their power bills.
"The disturbing thing about these stats is that of the 2333 people on payment plans, around 30 per cent are struggling to make payments," he said.
He said 764 people had defaulted on their payment plans in the first three months of the year.
But a Government spokesman said the 764 defaults had been a direct debit plan rather than a payment plan.
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