THE ELECTRICITY Authority (EAC) will abandon the controversial estimated billing system currently in use, EAC spokesman Costas Gavrielides said yesterday.
The decision was made yesterday by the EAC’s Board of Directors, following Tuesday’s House Trade Committee meeting, where deputies criticised the authority for using a system which led to clients receiving huge estimated bills.
“We have decided to go back to the old system,” Gavrielides said yesterday. “We decided to do this not because the existing system was not good, but because our clients were not happy – they did not like the system.”
Currently, actual electricity consumption is measured every four months; customers receive an — often inflated — estimate after two months, which is adjusted at the end of the four-month period when electricity meters are read.
Deputies said low-income groups, such as pensioners, had suffered under the estimate system, while the EAC profited by holding onto a significant amount of money from VAT in the short-term.
But Gavrielides warned yesterday that reverting to the old bi-monthly bill system would not lead to cheaper bills in the long-term.
“In going back to the old system inevitably our costs will rise,” he said. “Sooner or later all costs relating to billing will rise.”
He stressed that there had been few disadvantages to the estimate system: “There are no drawbacks to the system other than the fact that bill (amounts) were not equally distributed.”
Customers will in future receive a bill every two months, based on meter readings taken by EAC workers at the end of each two-month period. The return to bi-monthly bills will mean a higher wage bill for the EAC, as hundreds of thousands of house calls will have to be made more frequently.
“We will now make 350,000 house calls every two months, instead of 350,000 every four,” Gavrielides said.
Asked when the change in billing system would come into effect, he said,
“we have no details yet, but it should be very soon.”
Some EAC customers were relieved at the news yesterday.
“I’m glad they’ve seen the light,” said one customer. “I hated being in the dark about what I was paying every month.”
“Even though you were eventually reimbursed, it was often a struggle for us at the time,” said another.
Gavrielides noted that even after the system change, customers could opt for the equal monthly payment scheme introduced by the EAC recently.
“We have had a good response to this and people are continuing to show interest.”
The monthly payment scheme involves customers receiving a bill every month based on the previous year’s readings. At the end of the year, customers are reimbursed, or charged extra accordingly.
