Angry consumers are planning a protest march against the electricity bills that have soared by as much as one third due to rising crude oil prices in the Middle East.
Bishop Irvin Hart, of the Soul Winning Church of God in Christ, who has seen a dramatic increase in the cost of his electricity bill, said he is planning to rally a group of people to protest outside the offices of The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) very soon, if the sole producer of energy in The Bahamas does not offer good explanations as to why his bills have doubled over the past months.
“I’m going to organise something very soon because it is time the Bahamian people stop letting any government organisation just throw anything at them. We need to start taking a stand,” said Bishop Hart. “The poor people can’t get nobody to fight for them and the next step is if I don’t get some answers, I am going to get a group of people together and we are going to petition out in front of their places.”
Mr. Hart told the Guardian that for the year he had added no new appliances to his household, but in an effort to decrease his electricity consumption and the pricey energy bill, he stopped using his super charge water heater, yet he still saw a significant increase in the sum he had to dish out to BEC each month.
“My house, my bill has been a steady $200 and something and so forth and it was climbing. Two to three months ago I turn off my super charge water heater because I wanted to see if the bill would cut down the last time but it was $249. I cut off the water heater and we have been without water heater for about two months, so I expected a reduction in my light bill. But when I got the light bill it was four hundred dollars and something cents,” he said.
Now the Bishop has a household bill of over $500, something he said needs to be adequately explained to the consumers by workers at BEC.
“We were only using the air condition the same time in the night for a while and then cut it off… When I got the new light bill they tell me that my light bill is now 500 and something dollars. How are they going to explain that?” he asked.
But Bishop Irvin’s home is not the only place facing higher charges from the monopoly giant. His church is also bombarded with high fuel costs.
On average he said the church uses as much as 40 hours of electricity per month, and their bills have risen from $100 to over $300.
“We are at church 40 hours a month and the bill climb from $100 to $328 for one month. I don’t know how they can justify $300 for one month,” he said.
Others have started to feel the burn in their pockets as well. Another angry consumer, who presented his bill, had his fuel cost increase to 144.08, which reflected a third of the total electricity cost.
“I don’t mind paying the bill. I realise there is a major surge in oil prices, but how can people on low-income cope with this massive rise?” he asked.
When The Guardian tried to contact BEC’s general manager Kevin Basden, he was out of office. However, a source from the company revealed that both commercial and residential properties have faced an increase of more than a third of the total cost of electricity for their fuel charges.
“You will find that most commercial and residential bills have an increase of about a third to cope with the new fuel charges. This is because of the rising oil prices around the world. Only God knows where we go from here,” the source said.
To shed some more light on the fuel problem, Patty Roker, Account Executive for Carter Marketing, BEC’s Marketing Firm , said the increase in the cost of fuel should not come as a surprise to the consumer as the companion numerous occasions, has posted advertisements in both morning dailies informing them of the increase.
“The beginning of July the BEC ran ads showing what their surcharge was for that month, on July 6 and 11. It is no surprise with BEC when fuel goes up. When the price of oil goes up it is not felt here until about 6 weeks or two months after. So when they see the price go up the next bill is not going to immediately reflect that oil price,” said Ms. Roker.
She further explained that the basic rate has not changed since the government lowered the cost in 2003, however, fuel charge is the only increase that consumers should expect at this time as the oil prices continue to push above the $75 mark.
“Your electricity bill is bigger in the summer as everybody is running the air conditioner, so the fuel charge will be fairly high. We all have to learn how to conserve…we have to really sit down and be vigilant,” she said.
But whatever the warning, people still feel “ripped off” by BEC and demand that they be given their deposits that they have made over the years.
“I realize that with fuel charges and everything may have gone up, but at the same time you cant double what the light bill is… In my heart I believe BEC is ripping off people and you have nobody to stand up for you. I would like to see something being done because they claim they don’t estimate the bills. Since BEC playing that about the fuel charges and everything, why don’t they give us back our deposit what they have had for years? They are making money off that so I really wanted to them to come out on that?” said Bishop Hart.
By: Laura Matthews, The Nassau Guardian
