A key hearing on a request for higher rates by the phone company is to continue this afternoon with GT&T consultant Godfrey Statia to provide a list of areas on which agreement is expected.

This development followed a Public Utilities Commission (PUC) hearing that lasted over two and a half hours yesterday.

The information to be supplied by Statia is expected to assist in the determination of temporary rates following the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph's Company's (GT&T) December 31 filing for higher tariffs.

Legal Counsel for the PUC, Allan Wilson had asked Statia to identify areas of disagreement and those of likely agreement.

This question prompted Statia, who was under oath, to request a review of past deliberations to see how the parties arrived at temporary rates as a guide to the current situation.

This led to a further question on the factors to be used or taken account of in the determination or fixing of temporary rates. After brief deliberations the GT&T consultant made the offer to submit areas of likely agreement today.

This compromise was reached after a lengthy period of questioning by Counsel for the consumer groups, Stephen Fraser in which he attempted to get from Statia the rationale behind GT&T's application for rate rebalancing. GT&T is seeking huge increases in charges for local calls and to raise over $5B more in revenue.

Following the detailed questioning, consumers and employees of GT&T both voiced their positions on the rate issue.

The hearing, which will continue today at the Hotel Tower in Main Street, will likely see a decision on temporary rates for GT&T while a fuller consideration of the December 31 rate filing is undertaken.

At the start of yesterday session one of the members of the legal team for GT&T, Senior Counsel Rex McKay pointed to the procedure to be used for the determination of temporary rates while quoting Section 43 of PUC Act which he stated gave clear guidelines on the issue of a temporary rate application.

He questioned whether it was the intention of the commission to deal with the issue of temporary rates or that of permanent rates while imploring that the parties must have a hearing to determine what is considered relevant in relation to temporary rates.

Fraser was of the belief that even with the fixing of temporary rates there was a need for the telephone company to state its case to justify such.

According to Fraser even if the commission is entertaining the document the utility was still obligated to prove its case.

Senior Counsel Miles Fitzpatrick representing GT&T took issue with the PUC's notice published under Section 56 of the PUC Act which he stated will not allow for the making of a temporary order.

After a brief exchange, Commission Chairman, retired Justice of Appeal Prem Persaud agreed to set aside the notice thereby allowing the hearing to set temporary rates.

Following the insistence of counsel for the consumers that the phone company had to state its case it was decided that Statia would give a sworn statement to the commission on its application.