Officials at Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) said the company has no plans to write off customer debt, despite Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis' announcement that discussions were being held to develop a new tariff structure that institutionalizes a pay-as-you-go system and to "forgive customers' debts and put the lights back on".

"That was a government initiative, and anything that has to do with reducing customer rates or wiping out their debt is something that they (the government) would be dealing with," BPL Corporate Communications Manager Arnette Ingraham said on Thursday.

"At BPL right now, there are no plans to wipe out any customer debt.

"Our plans are to work with our customers to ensure that they are able to pay their bills and their power remains on."

During an interview outside Parliament in July, Davis said there were scores of people whose power supply was off, including elderly people and pensioners, who have been unable to afford the high rate of electricity.

He said consideration is being given to these people -- "attempting to forgive their debts and give them a pay-as-you-go meter, so that they will be able to [have electricity] again and just use what they can afford".

At the time, Davis said the board was putting in place protocols to determine those who can and cannot pay their bills.

Although BPL is aware that many of its customers have difficulty paying their electricity bills, the company's way of assisting is through payment plans and payment arrangements, according to Ingraham.

"The plan to write off customer debt is something that the government would have to implement and orchestrate as its own social program," she said.

"BPL fully understands the socioeconomic factors that have resulted in some of our customers having difficulty making payments.

"We have and we continue to invite these customers to come to our offices so that we can discuss how we can assist them in restoring their power while also paying off their debt."

In the past three years, the company has offered more than 16,000 payment arrangements to customers, according to Ingraham.

On Friday, officials said there were 3,498 New Providence accounts on payment plans and 3,549 accounts that were disconnected.

Jayme C. Pinder, Guardian Staff Reporter

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