About half of Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) customers who signed up for the former administration’s electricity reconnection and payment plan program ahead of the 2012 general election did not need to utilize it to the extent they did, and have ultimately had a negative impact on the power provider’s bottom line, according to BEC Executive Chairman Leslie Miller.
Miller said the program, which was intended to provide relief and generate revenue from delinquent and returning customers, had the opposite effect because many households who could afford their bills, spread their payments out over the full length of the program.
More than 5,000 households that were without electricity had their supply restored after registering for the up to three-year plan which was launched on February 9 last year. Reconnection fees were also waived to the tune of $80,000.
“Persons in the upper income bracket latched onto that provision that the government offered and decided that, ‘If I have a bill of $3,000 I will pay my bill over a three-year period’,” Miller told reporters on Thursday.
“Now it was really intended for the less fortunate among us and those who really couldn’t afford [it] – those mothers, who are out there struggling with their children, who work in the hotel, and who really could afford the added cost of electricity – it was meant for them.
“However, because it was straight across the board, all Bahamians took advantage of it to the detriment of BEC.”
Miller added: “It was wide open, so the fellow who lives in Winton, the fellow who lives out West Bay Street, those who live in these gated communities…benefitted from it more probably than the small man did because he decided, ‘If I have a bill of $5,000, what the hell? I’ll just let it run over 36-months.’ And that had a serious impact on BEC’s cash flow.”
Miller said management is in the process of restructuring that program, shifting those who can afford to pay more on a more “restricted program”.
“Certainly someone in a high economic bracket should not get 36 months to pay, say a $10,000 bill or a $24,000 bill for that bracket,” he said.
“…Those less fortunate may still go on the three-year plan or that may be really reconfigured for a 24-month period.
“Those who can afford to pay will probably go on a 12- to 18-month [payment] period to enable them to pay their bills at BEC.”
Miller said BEC’s receivables are in excess of $40 million.
By Royston Jones, Jr.
Guardian Staff Reporter
