PUC Confirms Land Marine Electricity Account Settled, Says Discount Was Exceptional

The Public Utilities Corporation has confirmed that Land Marine Ltd has no outstanding electricity liability with the utility, after settling an account that had drawn public attention earlier in 2026 through a leaked letter dated May 2022.

Chief executive Joel Valmont told reporters this week that the matter had been resolved through an agreed commercial settlement, with Land Marine paying a total of SCR 18,130,743. The account was fully settled by December 2025. The corporation’s position is that the SCR 25,161,081.67 figure cited in the 2022 letter reflected unbilled electricity consumption and demand charges for the period from March 2017 to December 2021, arising from an administrative oversight when an upgraded electricity connection was commissioned but not activated in PUC’s billing system.

Confirming the authenticity of the 2022 letter, Mr Valmont said the discount offered as part of the settlement reflected exceptional commercial and equitable considerations. The arrangement applied a thirty percent reduction to energy charges while leaving demand charges fully payable. PUC said the discount did not set a precedent and that no similar settlements had been offered to other commercial customers.

Land Marine Ltd holds fourteen separate electricity accounts with PUC, of which the settled account was one. The other thirteen remained active and were paid in accordance with standard billing arrangements throughout the period. Mr Valmont used the clarification to underline that the case was not connected to unauthorised electricity supply or deliberate non payment by the customer.

PUC’s wider tariff reform context is significant. In July 2026, Cabinet approved the implementation of the July 2026 fuel cost adjustment, under which no tariff increase applies to the first 400 kWh of monthly electricity consumption for domestic customers, according to a State House cabinet briefing. The cost of shielding households is recovered through higher charges on consumption above 400 kWh and revised tariffs for commercial and government consumers, the Africa Newsroom press release confirmed.

The fuel adjustment comes against the backdrop of an ongoing International Monetary Fund Article IV consultation, which recorded that Cabinet had approved on 29 April 2026 the adoption of a Multi Year Electricity Tariff framework as part of broader electricity tariff reform. Cabinet documents released through the State House portal indicate that significant progress had been made on the relevant structural benchmark but more time was needed to complete technical work supporting a multi year end use tariff system and the publication of an associated tariff trajectory, per the State House cabinet briefing.

For water services, PUC has separate arrangements to consider rebates in specific circumstances, such as verified high consumption resulting from concealed pipe bursts or equipment failures. The Land Marine case was assessed on its own merits and the discount was not applied through the water services framework.

Mr Valmont confirmed that PUC has since strengthened its internal controls to reduce the risk of similar unbilled consumption occurrences. Land Marine Ltd appears as a state linked entity in the Government of Seychelles Annual Financial Statements, and the corporation’s handling of the case is likely to inform parliamentary scrutiny during the next cycle of public enterprise audits.

Sources cited: Cabinet Business, Wednesday 8 July 2026, State House Seychelles · Government Shields Households from Fuel Cost Adjustment on First 400 kWh, Africa Newsroom, 11 July 2026 · Public Utilities Corporation 2023 Annual Report, puc.sc · Government of Seychelles Annual Financial Statements 2019, Ministry of Finance.