Updated: OUR approves NWC’s PAM rate

The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has issued its decisions on the 2023 Annual Price Adjustment Mechanism (ANPAM) for the National Water Commission (NWC).

The NWC says having reviewed and verified the information presented in the NWC's ANPAM submission of March 27, the regulator has confirmed that the rate of 5.11% is applicable to the commission's base rates.

In accordance with the NWC's request, no adjustment will be made to its miscellaneous/reconnection fees. It should be noted that the ANPAM change is not a rate increase to NWC.

It is simply an adjustment to NWC's base tariff which reduces the level of monthly PAM adjustments customers see on their bills.

The annual reset of the PAM, called ANPAM, is the process by which the OUR verifies and confirms the monthly PAM adjustments over the preceding period and rolls the cumulative PAM adjustments since the last reset, into the base rates approved for each of the three indices– Foreign Exchange Rate, Consumer Price Index and Electricity Charge.

This effectively updates the base rates making them reflective of current costs.

With the monthly application of the PAM, customers' bills are already reflective of current rates and movements in each of the three indices.

The ANPAM, therefore, is merely a 'true up' mechanism to ensure that the approved base rates for the indices going into the next year catch up with, and are more reflective of, the rates already being applied to customer billing.

Note: In a previous version of this story, we incorrectly reported that the OUR approved a rate increase for the NWC. We regret the error.

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