PHILIPSBURG--The Governor of the Netherlands Antilles has approved the Island Ordinance on Electricity, paving the way for GEBE to obtain its concession from the Island Government. GEBE's annual concession will be set at NAf. 5 million.

Commissioner in charge of public utilities Theo Heyliger confirmed the approval Thursday and said the ordinance should be on the agenda of the next meeting of the Central Committee, hopefully next week. Once the ordinance is approved, he said, the concession should follow fairly quickly.

The 60-year-old ordinance had to be changed to facilitate the concession, new tariff structures, the waste-to-energy initiative, etc. The approval comes as a May 17 deadline looms from lender Pacific Life for GEBE to have a concession in place with the island territory.

If by May 17 the concession is not in place, The Daily Herald understands that Pacific Life is likely to start procedures to "call in" its multi-million-dollar loan with GEBE, with interest.

GEBE was to ensure a new concession for the company would be in place by January 31, one year prior to the expiration of the current concession. GEBE and the Island Government were successful in securing an extension until March 31, but again failed to meet that deadline.

As a result, GEBE incurred two major penalties of approximately US $98,000 at the end of March and at the end of April.