EAC cuts back on unpaid bills

By Constantinos Psillides

THE Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) has reduced the amount of unpaid bills by 45 per cent in a year, spokesperson Christina Theofanidou said on Thursday, stressing that the goal is to lower the number even further.

According to Theofanidou, EAC was owed €40m in unpaid bills on April 30, 2014, while on April 30, this year that had dropped to €22m.

“Of course we are happy over this development. The EAC has taken steps towards collecting that money and it seems that we have been successful,” she said.

The EAC spokesperson attributed the drop in unpaid bills to electricity charges dropping by 20 per cent from last year that allowed people to afford to pay past debts, introducing a 4.5 per cent late charge on unpaid bills in September 2014 and making it easier for people to pay in instalments.

“A total of 10,000 people came to the EAC offices last year to arrange for an agreement. Most of them didn’t stick to that agreement, but around 3,500 people did,” she noted.

EAC is also owed €17m in what is referred to as “closed accounts” with minimal chance of ever collecting. “These are accounts belonging to people who relocated under a different name, left the country without paying or businesses that went bankrupt. The EAC is doing it’s best to find these people, but the chances of actually collecting money are slim to non-existent,” she offered.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.