The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) has cut its accounts receivables by $14 million over the past six months since September 2011 to a current $129 million, its executive chairman told Tribune Business yesterday.

And Michael Moss added that the latter figure was likely to decline significantly in the coming month, given that bills worth a collective $37 million had just been issued.

Mr Moss told Tribune Business: "Total receivables owed to the Corporation, and this includes government receivables and private sector receivables, is $129 million. The bulk of that is from the private sector."

He said the Corporation had been much more aggressive with its collections, adding: "We have been much more aggressive in terms of collections. We have hired temporary disconnectors to assist us with disconnections.

"People tend to get a little bit comfortable with electricity service if they see they can run up an arrears without any action taking place. Our disconnection effort has been much more effective than in the past, and our collections have improved compared to last year and the year before that.

"There is still a significant backlog, but you have to bear in mind that of the $129 million, $37 million was just billed. Some persons may not have yet even received their bills. The rest of it would be in what I call a 'due to overdue' category. The $37 million I would classify as not yet due."

Subtracting that $37 million indicates that the 'due to overdue' category stands somewhere around $92 million. Given that BEC's accounts receivables have hovered at around $100 million over the past several years, it does indicate that the Corporation is making steady progress in cutting them, but success will not be achieved overnight.

BEC has waived thousands of dollars in reconnection fees as part of an assistance initiative launched by the Government in February 2012. Customers are now required to pay their current bill and make a payment on the overdue portion, but reconnection fees will be waived.

The assistance program is expected to run for 12 months. According to Arnette Ingraham, BEC's spokesperson, up to last weekend, 7,317 had signed on to the reconnection programme. Not all these were reconnections, though, as many are likely to be clients eager to sign on to reduce their monthly burden and prevent any cut-off.

Mr Moss also said BEC was bracing for increased summer demand. He added: "We have already tied 20 Mega Watts (MW) of rental capacity to our grid, and we expect in the coming week to tie another 20 MW of rental capacity into the grid. We do not expect any challenges meeting the load this summer, not from a generation perspective."