The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

MOST of the residential customers whose electricity supply was cut due to unpaid BEC bills should be “fully connected” by September, BEC chairman Leslie Miller said.

Last month, the Tall Pines MP revealed that a staggering 90 per cent of residential customers are in arrears – to the combined tune of $26 million

In an effort to correct this, he had said, BEC launched an “aggressive” summer campaign in which customers are offered a discount if they pay off their arrears, and customers who stay up to date with their bills will also be rewarded with a discount.

Last May, Mr Miller said BEC had disconnected more than 6,000 customers.

Yesterday, when asked about the summer reconnection campaign, he said: “It’s going very well in New Providence. Many people are coming in and making arrangements with it and we expect by September that most of the residents that are off now should be on and fully connected.”

In June, customers behind on their bills were encouraged to pay off their arrears and in exchange, will be given a 10 per cent discount, applied to the portion of their bill that is more than 60 days past due.

Any resident customer who pays their bill in its entirety and on time for June, July, and August will be given a two per cent discount.

This will be applied after the final payment is made, Mr Miller had explained.

The chairman noted that the country is facing “hard times” and thousands of households are disconnected.

He said BEC is willing to work with all customers in an effort to get them back on the grid and arrange payments.

“We encourage any residential customer who may be disconnected to come in and speak to our of our customer service representatives,” he said.

“Representatives will be working with each customer individually to come up with affordable payment terms that will allow them to restore or retain their electricity connection.”