The Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) has cleared millions of dollars in long-outstanding, unrecoverable customer debt from its financial ledgers as part of an ongoing debt amnesty initiative, according to Acting Financial Controller Sabrina Benjamin.
Benjamin confirmed that the removed balances are long-standing entries that the utility provider had already determined had almost no chance of being recouped. Repeating the characterization of the total value as “a couple of millions”, she emphasized that the write-off does not create an unexpected sudden revenue hole for the authority, since the vast majority of the written-off accounts were already classified as uncollectible on APUA’s internal financial records.
This accounting action serves a key practical purpose: it allows APUA to remove inactive, non-performing balances from its books, producing a far more accurate picture of the actual revenue the organization can reasonably expect to collect from its customer base moving forward. To date, Benjamin has not released an exact total of the written-off debt, nor has she disclosed how many individual customer accounts are impacted by the move.
The debt clearance is directly tied to APUA’s existing amnesty program, a policy designed to give customers flexibility to resolve long-unpaid balances through customized special arrangements. Broadly, these types of programs aim to strike a balance between recovering at least a portion of outstanding arrears and clearing the books of debt that is highly unlikely to be collected in full.
The public disclosure of the write-off comes at a time when APUA is grappling with growing financial strain driven by skyrocketing fuel expenses. Internal figures show the authority’s monthly fuel outlay has nearly doubled in just six months, jumping from 11 million Eastern Caribbean dollars in January to 21.8 million Eastern Caribbean dollars by July.
In response to ongoing revenue pressures, APUA has restarted service disconnections for customers with severely delinquent accounts. However, the authority has noted that customers facing financial hardship are not left without options: they can reach out to APUA’s customer service department to negotiate installment-based payment plans that fit their current budget.
Officials also added a key consumer protection guardrail: customers who formally file a dispute over a specific bill charge will not have their service disconnected while the dispute undergoes official review. During the investigation process, APUA will re-examine the original meter reading, cross-check the customer’s historical consumption patterns, and determine whether a billing adjustment is warranted.
As of the latest update, APUA has not confirmed whether it will launch an additional debt amnesty program in the near future.