Wednesday, November 25, 2009

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900-plus get assistance with light bills By KRYSTEL ROLLE ~ Guardian Staff Reporter ~ krystel@nasguard.com More than 900 people have had their electricity supplies reconnected or have avoided disconnection in the three weeks since Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham announced that the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) had been ordered to restore the services of delinquent customers on the condition that they pay a portion of their bill, BEC General Manager Kevin Basden recently revealed. Ingraham unveiled the temporary relief plan in the House of Assembly on October 28 — a little over a year after he ordered BEC to immediately restore, without any reconnection fee, electricity supplies to all residential consumers who had their supplies disconnected for failing to pay their bills in full. Over 5,000 people benefited from that relief effort. This time around, the policy requires that customers pay 10 percent of their arrears or their last month's bill, whichever is greater, and enter into an agreement to repay the remaining balance over the next two years. According to the latest figures, 931 residential customers and seven commercial customers had taken advantage of the customer assistance program. Basden said that figure includes people who were about to have their electricity supplies disconnected. "In other words, they had outstanding arrears and they would have been on the list for disconnection. So they would have been disconnected had they not made arrangements," Basden told The Nassau Guardian. While he did not have the exact number of disconnected consumers, Basden said the figure is over 5,000. He added that the loss of payments has cost the electricity company. "Most certainly, it's going to affect our cash flow. At the end of the day, we still have to pay our bills to the fuel companies and others. Customers don't pay that. So it adversely impacts our cash flow," he said. According to BEC's latest audited statements as of September 30, 2008, which were tabled in the House of Assembly earlier this week, the corporation had $105 million in loans that came due on July 31, 2009 for which it sought refinancing. Lenders, however, would only grant BEC the money it required to refinance the debt if the government agreed to back the loans. The report listed BEC's total current assets at just over $250 million with its total current liabilities at $449.559 million. BEC suffered a net loss of $16 million in 2008, down from the $21.2 million it lost in 2007. Basden encouraged more disconnected consumers to take advantage of the program. "It looks like it may be increasing now, in terms of the rate in which people are coming in. We have seen a steady flow for the last few days. But we'd like for them to come in as quickly as possible. It's an offer that is being extended," he added. When he announced the relief effort, Prime Minister Ingraham said the large number of disconnected consumers was causing "great distress". "Many of these people are out of work or some of them are only working part time and the government seeks to find the means in which they can alleviate some of the hurt and pain which they are undergoing," he said. Ingraham added that by February 2010, consumers will have to commit to pay the outstanding balance owed to BEC. Those people will be given up to three years to pay off their balance. According to Ingraham, if the consumers who sign up for the outstanding balance program in February miss payments for a period of three months afterward, BEC would be authorized to disconnect them again. He added that consumers will not be charged a reconnection fee to have their service restored to them. Friday, November 20, 2009