JAMAICA Public Service (JPS) customers, faced with unusually high electricity charges for the August billing period, may not see any relief this month, instead they should expect some adjustments in their subsequent bill, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has advised.

Addressing the Jamaica Observer Press Club officials of the OUR said it is in discussion with the light and power company regarding how electricity charges for the September billing cycle will be handled, as it would be difficult to address the August bill in retrospect.

This may come as a disappointment for JPS customers who were hit with exorbitant light bills reflecting increases ranging from 30 to 100 per cent for the August billing cycle, as they had been anticipating good news following Energy Minister Daryl Vaz’s declaration at a press conference on Wednesday that JPS had promised to present a proposal by Friday to further address concerns about the unusually high bills.

“The Government is strong and insistent that a complete roll-back of the increases is the only thing that will make this Government and this minister happy, and I think that it is achievable and attainable,” said Vaz then.

Director general of the OUR Ansord Hewitt told the Observer Press Club that the regulator will give JPS some instruction as to how September bills are to be dealt with “because we can’t do it retrospectively”.

He added: “Some customers have already begun to pay. So, what we will say to JPS is that look, here are some directions as to how that is to be dealt with.”

Hewitt said the discussions may also lead to JPS further extending the suspension of its disconnection process for non-payment of bills.

“They said they won’t disconnect until the 15th of September. We are investigating these bills. The procedure is usually, while there is an investigation in place, you do not disconnect. We have to do our investigation as expeditiously as possible and as the need arises or if the need arises to extend the disconnection timeline, we’ll have to advise them about that as well,” he said.

“Certainly, they’ll have instruction by next week as to how they are to deal with the question of September bills,” Hewitt added.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Vaz announced a reprieve for customers who were without power for most of the August billing cycle in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, which hit Jamaica on July 3.

He said that these customers, who were still charged despite not having the commodity, would no longer be required to pay these bills as the JPS will retract the charges.

“In cases where estimated bills were sent out to persons who had no supply, JPS will cancel these bills and generate new bills representing zero consumption and therefore zero dollars owed for those bills,” the minister said as he read from a document supplied by the JPS.

However, no reprieve was announced for Jamaicans who never lost power, or experienced only a brief outage but were given exorbitant electricity charges.

Vaz said, too, that JPS will continue to facilitate flexible payment plans for customers who need more time to pay with requests being dealt with on a case-by-case basis.