Kenya Power has said it will not forward names of electricity bill defaulters to credit reference bureaus. The lighting company says sharing contact information with the bureaus could land the company in a barrage of lawsuits.
The company recorded a sh12.4 billion in unpaid bills in June 2016. Referring to the Finance Act 2016, Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich set start of 2017 for new rules allowing utility firms and saccos to share information with credit bureaus.
The Kenya Power and Lighting Company has however expressed hardships in tracing the bills to defaulters. Most of them they say, appear under landlord names who are not the real. According to the finance act, sharing information is supposed to enable lenders to determine customers’ credit worthiness.
Manufacturers top the list of defaulters with unpaid bills adding up to 7.6 billion. Households show a record of 3.18 billion, parastatals owe Kenya Power 1.2 billion, ministries and county governments at sh27 million.
Some of these debts have been blamed on faulty meters, delayed meter readings and court cases against the company.
In a case defaulters’ information will be forwarded, Defaulters will answer to
However, Credit Information Sharing Association of Kenya has asked KPLC to find a way of sharing the information to make it easy for the association to punish defaulters.
Jared Getenga Chief Executive of CIS asked Kenya Power to look for all means to improve the quality of their data saying the supplier should take responsibility for the accuracy of data shared. Due to unpaid bills the power company has been forced to write off sh4.24 billion.
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