By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Free National Movement says it will privatise the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, now called Bahamas Power and Light, if it is elected to office this year and will ensure that the utility provider is owned by Bahamians through majority shareholding.

The party made the statement in its election platform, Manifesto 2017.

Although in seeking energy reform, the Christie administration had considered selling BEC, the government ultimately selected American company PowerSecure to manage the company instead.

Now rebranded BPL, the government owned entity still faces criticism over reliability, an issue PowerSecure was contracted to address.

The FNM has long discussed its desire to privatise BEC.

When he was Minister of State for the Environment Phenton Neymour said in 2008: “We recognise that there are a number of initiatives that are necessary at BEC, and we feel that it may be best for The Bahamas that we look at BEC, look at what is demanded of it, look at what the Bahamian people require, and see how best we can deliver that. It would, in our opinion, require private sector involvement.”

In its manifesto, the FNM also said it would provide incentives and tax concessions to “local private companies for the production and supply of

alternative fuel sources including waste-to-energy, bio-diesel, methane, LNG, wind and solar energy in New Providence and the Family Islands” and “publicly traded alternative energy companies (AECs) that provide services in areas of assembly, installation and maintenance of renewable energy sources.”

The FNM said it would create a “renewable energy economy by supporting and promoting a National Solarisation Programme.”

The party also plans to introduce a pre-paid “smart metering” option to electricity consumers and reduce the cost of energy by “modernising the electricity generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure.”

The FNM’s Manifesto also included a discussion of its immigration agenda.

The party said it would create legislation implementing stiffer penalties while enforcing laws against trafficking that would, among other things, affect “repeat illegal immigrant offenders and those who employ illegal labour.”

The FNM said it would expedite the process by which children born to Bahamian women that are married to non-Bahamians are naturalised and will also expedite the process by which long-term residents and people born and raised in the Bahamas to non-Bahamian parents are regularised.

We will “set up an immigration council to deal with all the matters related to permanent residency, annual residency and work permits,” the Manifesto promises.