Roughly one million customers owe the main power utility PPC amounts of up to 1,000 euros, unsettling data which explains why the utility has been providing greater incentives for payments.

PPC is currently considering offering greater discounts to customers registered for the utiliy’s payback program and paying their installments on time. They are already being offered a 15 percent discount as a reward for punctuality.

For quite some time now, officials at the corporation have been considering introducing an additional discount that could range berween 6 percent and 10 percent. The issue is expected to also be discussed today at a PPC board meeting.

Though PPC’s discount initiative for punctual customers increases payment incentives, the move is negatively impacting the utility’s revenues. According to a forecast released yesterday, PPC’s turnover for the nine-month period is expected to reach 4.02 billion euros, down by 9.6 percent from the 4.45 billion-euro figure posted for the equivalent period last year.

This is the price being paid by PPC for its effort to avoid the accumulation of further bad debt and subdue the outflow of customers to rival electicity suppliers.

Even so, certain company officials insist that PPC’s softened payback campaign is generally proving to be beneficial for the utility. Over 600,000 PPC customers are expected to have registered for the payback program, offering electricity bill debt settlement over 36 installments, by the end of this year.