He told his weekly news conference that the two sides held high level meetings earlier this week and will continue meeting to examine options on the way forward.

The Government has committed itself to ensuring the survival of the firm and a reliable supply of power to consumers and the Office of the President is assuring Guyanese that it is doing all that is possible to recover the situation, Luncheon said.

"We are coming down to decision making time. The two shareholders should soon climax their efforts to address in finality the critical situation affecting GPL," he reported, adding that representatives of the two sides have made considerable progress in addressing mutual concerns and an agreement is still possible.

As regards the adoption of "walking away for a dollar" option by AC Power, Luncheon said this has to be viewed in the context of them making it clear that they are unwilling to remain a party under the current state of GPL.

They have been embarrassed by the failure of GPL to address the problems resulting in outrage by citizens, he said.

"AC Power has made it pellucidly clear that they are unwilling to continue collaboration as a shareholder or the representatives of the CDC (Commonwealth Development Corporation) shareholders under the current dispensation, and they have highlighted a number of areas and what the consequences have been - investment, no dividends, and the embarrassment.

"These are international agencies and they face the embarrassment of being associated continuously with the failures and having to address citizens' outrage. And indeed, they said that under those circumstances if the current dispensation were to remain, cast in stone, we are going to walk.

"It is of course in that context that the engagements between the representatives of the Government and AC Power have taken place to put in place mutually acceptable interventions to restore the resolve of the partners to continue the GPL operations," Luncheon explained.

He added that the Government is working assiduously to realise the latter objective, but also has to be prepared for any eventuality.

On the payment of arrears by government entities to GPL, he explained that because of late billing and the time it takes to reconcile accounts, sometimes there are delays in effecting payments resulting in arrears.

However, the Government is making every effort to clear all arrears to help the troubled power company with its cash flow difficulties, he said.

A team from AC Power, which represents the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), one of the shareholders of GPL, has been holding discussions on the current agreement in the electricity sector with the intention of resolving the issues affecting the provision of a reliable supply of electricity at a reasonable cost. The other shareholder is the Government of Guyana.

Cabinet took the position that an extremely comprehensive approach is needed to resolve the multitude of problems confronting the company and to provide a solution that would see the company return to a reliable provision of power to consumers and adherence to the agreements that were concluded and are currently under discussion.

Electricity bills were set to be higher from February 1, but the move by the power company came under heavy fire by city businessmen and from other sections of society and the matter eventually ended up in court which has put the proposed increases on hold.

GPL had submitted to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) prescribed information showing that energy (kwh) rates will be increased by between 13.9% for residential consumers and 16.6% compared to rates billed in December last year.