New rules for power bill collection in the offing
Faizul Khan Tanim
The government is planning to introduce new rules for electricity bill collection as subscribers are suffering from mismanagement and irregularities in the billing system of Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (Desa) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (Desco).The subscribers allege the authorities do not send monthly bills regularly. "We do not receive the bill of a specific month in time, instead we get an average bill of four to five months," said a subscriber. Sometimes it becomes difficult for the middle class people to pay the cumulative amount of four or five months. State Minister for Power Iqbal Hassan Mahmood acknowledged the fact that Desa employees are responsible for this mismanagement. The minister said rules are being formulated to stop such irregularities, including the "ghost bills," often issued by the authorities. According to the new rules, bills will be sent on time and if they are not paid within a specified period, the onnections will be cut off. Besides, bills unpaid for a period of five years will be written off. Desa Chairman AMA Rab told Star City that there is a system of 90 days' deadline to pay the monthly bill after which the line can be disconnected in case of non-payment. But this rule is never practised. The chairman said since the rules are not followed or there are no specific rule, the consumers whose ledger book says that bill for a particular month has not been paid, even if it is three or four years old, then it becomes mandatory for the subscriber to make the late payment. Tauhidul Islam, member (Engineering and Commerce) of Desa, said this is the last time subscribers are being given notices for bill payment. The unsettled cases of outstanding bills will be classified considering how regular the subscriber was at paying bills. A decision may be taken to waive too old bills, he added. Meanwhile, the Desa authorities blamed the officials at their own office for not updating the ledgers regularly and correctly. The state minister for power said, "There is no rule about the time duration to pay a monthly bill for which this nuisance is taking place. I have proposed that any bill outstanding for five years should be written off." About the irregular sending of bills, he said, "It is the fault of the Desa authority. The outstanding amount which has not been collected should be paid by the authority who did not issue the bill on time." "Consumers should not be harassed for not preserving age-old electricity bill copies", the minister added.
| 
