Promotion will end on Friday, Dec. 21
NASSAU, BAHAMAS – While scores of Bahamian families are reportedly off the electrical grid due to their inability to pay their electricity bills, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) is hopeful that a newly-introduced holiday campaign will assist affected families with getting their lights back on ahead of Christmas.
The holiday promotion was launched just 12 days before Christmas.
BPL executives revealed on Friday that the Christmas promotion, which launched December 13, will run until December 21.
The promotion requires clients to pay 25 percent on accounts which are over 60 days in arrears to avoid disconnection.
Those payments must be made by December 21st.
BPL has also extended the same courtesy to accounts which have already been disconnected.
Those consumers who are already off the grid must pay 25 percent on the existing bill by December 19 in order to be reconnected.
“We believe that there are customers who are either in arrears and have their lights off and want to have them turned back on; they can come and take advantage of this,” said BPL’s chairman, Dr. Donovan Moxey.
“There are also customers who are nervous as to whether or not they will be kept on during the holidays. So, we are offering it to all of them.”
The program was released on the company’s Facebook account late Thursday evening.
Peter Rutherford, Director of Customer Service at BPL confirmed to Eyewitness News Online on Friday that consumers began showing interest in the promotion less than 24 hours after the promotion was released.
“There were quite a few customers who met us on our doorsteps on Friday morning and were ready to go.
“So, there are some persons who have been in already to take advantage of it and so their lights should be on by the end of the day,” Rutherford shared.
While the company has experienced a positive response to the Christmas promotion, Rutherford encouraged interested consumers to ensure that they make the necessary payments ahead of the specified 
deadlines.
“We expect to get a flood of persons who are interested in this promotion so one of the things that I would like to make sure of is that those persons who are already disconnected, make sure to pay ahead of the December 19deadline so that we can ensure that our teams get out there in a timely basis to ensure that everything runs smoothly,” he said.
The Christmas promotion comes on the heels of a new initiative announced by the Minnis-led administration which provided a Value Added Tax (VAT) free concession for power bills.
The tax-free concession, which was introduced during the summer months, initially slashed VAT off BPL consumers’ bills which were $200 dollars or less.
Government recently announced that the tax-free concession is now available to BPL consumers whose electricity bills are $300 dollars or less.
