The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE BAHAMAS Electricity Corporation's (BEC) executive chairman said yesterday it was too early to tell what impact the Government's assistance program for struggling customers would have on the Corporation's revenue streams, telling Tribune Business that based on the numbers thus far it had waived nearly $10,000 in reconnection fees. Up to yesterday morning, 537 BEC customers had registered for the assistance initiative launched by the Government last week. Customers are now required to pay their current bill and make a payment on the overdue portion of their bill, but reconnection fees will be waived. The assistance program is expected to run for 12 months. Michael Moss told Tribune Business: "The impact on revenue streams will be speculative; it could be positive or negative. If without the program people would have just stayed disconnected, owing the Corporation, you are better off offering a program that causes them to come in and pay something and get the meter turning again. "Not only do you then get them involved in trying to pay an outstanding debt, but you get them consuming fresh electricity, so the Corporation's revenue could go up." Mr Moss added: "There is a possibility of a negative impact if it's not well managed, because people can come in owing a debt, build up more debt and then you are owed more. You have to manage it properly to ensure that the commitment people made to settle this debt over three years, if they are not living up to it that, then you have to go back and disconnect them and force them to honour their commitment. If you do that the program then proves beneficial to the customer and the Corporation." Mr Moss said the last such BEC assistance program was successful, although he felt it was not well managed. "The last program was successful although I don't feel it was managed as well as it should have been," he said. "So we did have some persons who defaulted and whose accounts may not have been addressed in a timely fashion. There will be closer monitoring this time around, and so I do expect that it will be managed better than the last one."