Mechanism for issuance, payment of utility bills on one date on the cards

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to carve out a mechanism ensuring one issuance date of utility bills such as gas, electricity and PTCL fixed phones of one consumer and one last date for payment of bills for him. This will provide massive ease to every consumer.

"Every consumer will be able to pay all utility bills in one go either in bank or in post office. All utility bills of one consumer are to be issued on one date which willenable him to pay till one last date. The consumer will be able to pay all bills either on the last date or before that," a senior official told The News.

A three-member committee, headed by secretary Power Division, comprising secretaries of Information Technology and Petroleum & Natural Resources, will put their heads to work out the mechanism.

The meeting is to be held in the light of the decision of federal cabinet that met on March 10, 2020. The federal cabinet had later on constituted a three-member committee headed by secretary Power Division to look into the issue of payment of utility bills on multiple dates and devise a mechanism in consultation with all the utility companies.

Secretary Power Division Irfan Ali, when contacted, confirmed saying the three-member committee will meet today (Friday) and would brainstorm on how to carve out the mechanism ensuring issuance of all utility bills on one date and for payment of all bills their last date would also be one. Currently, every utility bill’s issuance date is different and payment date is also different from other bills because of which one consumer has to go either to post office or any bank at different times to deposit bills.

This not only wastes one’s time but under the new scenario that emerged out of COVID-19, consumers can avoid social distancing in the bank each time. The cycle of every consumer starting from originating the bills to paying them up at certain date is different. The official said that the cycle of every consumer will continue to be different, but what the government intends to do is to ensure the issuance of all utility bills on one date for ‘A’ consumer and for him the date of submitting all the bills will also be the same. This will provide ease to all consumers using gas, PTCL phone and electricity.

When asked if all the consumers will have one date of issue and deposit for their bills, the official said not at all, all consumers of certain area will not have the same cycle from the date of issue to date of deposit from consumers of other areas. However, utility bills of one consumer belonging to a certain area will be issued on one date and he will be able to deposit all bills on last date.