By Elena Fysentzou
THE Electricity Authority (EAC) said yesterday it was allowing customers to pay hefty bills for the March-April in two monthly installments following complaints about the increase in prices.
The announcement came in a statement in which the EAC said bills were unusually high because the authority had underestimated consumption for the January-February period.
Since April 2000, the EAC has been estimating one bimonthly bill, then adjusting consumption with an actual reading for the following billing period, as is common practice across Europe in an effort to cut costs and keep bills as low as possible.
The problem arose when the EAC underestimated consumption for the months of January and February. EAC spokesman George Gavrielides said yesterday the discrepancy had arisen because of unusually low temperatures between March and April, which increased the consumption of heavy fuel. Other factors responsible for increased bills are the gradual 2.9 per cent increase in tariffs since last year, as well as a two per cent rise in VAT, which came into force in January, and a substantial increase in the price of heavy oil.
In response to increasing bills, the EAC has introduced its ‘Plan of Debt Payment by Equal Value Monthly Installments’ to help people organise their finances better. Gavrielides said the plan was available to all EAC customers with no outstanding bills, and would offer identical monthly bills estimated from the previous consumption over the last couple of years. At the end of each year, the customer would either be credited or given back the difference between the estimated and actual figures of the bills.
The plan has actually been available to customers since last summer but so far only 130 of the 300,000 EAC customers have signed up for it.
The EAC said more people had been expressing interest lately with figures expected to increase, since many families find it easier to plan their finances around estimated monthly bills.
The authority added that, irrespective of the scheme, all customers were entitled to pay their March and April bills in two monthly installments.
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