favour of a rate restructuring.

The move means domestic customers will pay an average increase of 2.2 per cent.

That represents a monthly increase of between $1.39 and $3.10, depending on consumption.

And commercial users will see an average decrease in bills of between 0.7 percent and 1.9 percent, depending on the size of the business.

A spokeswoman for Belco said that the decision was taken to restructure rates to reflect the cost of supplying power.

She said the company had invested heavily in improving the service to domestic customers, which has been taken into account in setting the new charges.

The spokeswoman added: "This will provide no additional income to Belco in 1996, but rather shifts the rates among the various customer groups.'' The change was approved by the Price Control Commission, which originally granted the firm permission for the 2.75 per cent increase for the three years from 1994-96.

The spokeswoman added that the service charge, introduced in 1988, will continue to be waived for customers who get Social Assistance payments.

And she said: "In order for Belco to submit an application which has the company remaining revenue neutral in 1996, we have had to look within our own organisation for operational savings and outside Belco for other business opportunities for innovative earning potential -- this will continue.''