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Paying utility bills still remains a chore

One-stop service plan unveiled over a year ago is yet to take off

Rizanuzzaman Laskar
More than a year ago the authorities unveiled a plan to ease the long-standing hassles of paying utility service bills.
According to the plan, it was decided to introduce a one-stop bill payment system so that city dwellers pay all their utility bills under one roof minus the hassles.
But still now the bill payers spend their precious time waiting at bank queues wondering whether they would ever be free from this chore.
"Last month I sent my chauffeur to pay the water bill at a local bank down the street. And it was not before about four hours when he finally came back, all sweaty and weary," said a Mogbazar resident.
He was talking about the hassles of paying at the Janata Bank branch where only two people collect bills everyday from scores of people. The bills include water, electricity, gas and municipal taxes.
When our photographer went to take a snap of the ordeal of the subscribers there yesterday, he was held back by the bank manager. The manager told the photographer to take permission from the bank's head office first or he is unable to allow it.
"Paying the utility bills has been a bane of my life -- a chore unlike any other," said Shafayet Hossain, resident of Farmgate. "You would have to put away a few hours from your day's schedule just to pay the bills. And I do not see things getting better in near future"
Shafayet's views may change soon as the government is going
to make arrangements for receiving bills through commercial banks in the city, as well as across the country to ensure hassle-free services to the people.
The Banking Wing of Finance Ministry issued a circular to the Bangladesh Bank and all commercial banks asking them to take steps in this regard.
The circular said around 314 branches of commercial banks across the country will accept bills starting from December 1 this year. The circular asked the commercial banks and utility service providers to get into necessary contracts by November 15.
"Ministries concerned agreed with the idea of receiving utility bills through commercials banks and Internet services, ATM, ready cash and debit and credit cards to ensure hassle-free service for people," said a senior official at the finance ministry.
Currently, Dhaka dwellers pay different utility bills in different banks. The banks authorised to accept the utility bills are mentioned on the bill statement issued by the service providers.
"The idea of paying different bills in different banks is annoying. The long queues usually start from early morning and bank officials make things tedious,” said 1 labibur Rahman, a resident of Green Road.
Sometimes bill payers even tend to 'hire' people to stand in the queue on their behalf.
"I have seen a lot of proxy bill payers", said Dulal Hossain from Mogbazar. "They take Tk 20 to Tk 50 for standing in the queue depending on the time they spend or the number of bills paid.
It has been observed that each household receives several bills printed on different papers for different meters in their holdings making it time consuming for bank officials to process them. During the payment of the bills, the cashier has to go through all these bills and sign each of them and record the bill statements of
the households.
"If the billing information for all the meters were printed on a single piece of paper, it would be more convenient for both the bill payers and bank officials. This would allow bank officials to process the bills faster,” said I labibur Rahman.
Distribution of bills with short
extent of deadlines is another major headache for the city dwellers.
"By the time the bill finally reaches the subscribers, they get a very short deadline for payment. If the deadlines were extended for another month - for example, issuing the bill on first day of a month while the due date remains till end of the next month it would ease the sufferings of the customers." said Badrul Hasan, a resident of Urtara.
A change in the existing utility bill payment system would be a welcome move for city dwellers. And they believe the idea of paying all utility bills on the same bank would be useful.
"The private banks are quite efficient in handling the bill payment, it is the governmental banks where long queues tend to build up from early morning because of poor pace of the officials," said Dulal Hossain.
"So, if we can pay all utility bills in one private bank, that would be pretty useful," he observed.
This one-stop system however, is not the lone initiative to ease bill payment so far taken by the authorities. Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd. has already introduced an alternative hassle-free bill payment system for their subscribers in collaboration with GrameenPhone Limited.
Titas subscribers can pay their gas bills electronically through the telecom company's recently launched BillPay system.
Sources say GramecnPhone Limited is in talks with other utility services to incorporate their bill payment with the cellular operator's popular BillPay