Citizens' Mail

Utility bills gone electric

Consumers of water and electricity have to pay their utility bills to the respective agencies i.e; Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and The National Water Supply & Drainage Board (NWSDB) on a monthly basis. The procedure that is being followed by these two agencies to submit the bills to the consumers seems to be a very inefficient one.

The meter readers of these two agencies visit each consumer unit, i.e; residence or business place, on a certain date in every month and submit the bills after reading the meters and calculation of the fees.

I have found in so many times that these meter readers have visited on days that we were not in the house and have submitted a bill calculated on the basis of average monthly usage of the last few months.

These meter readers also must be having a very hard time since they have to go to each and every house/business place and ask the owners of them to open the gate for them to come in to read the meters. In some places the meters are located in places where access is not easy and as such they have to undergo lot of difficulties. Instances have also been reported by some meter readers that they have been bitten by the dogs that are being reared by the house owners.

Wouldn’t it be much more efficient and convenient if consumers themselves read the meter at the end of every month and visit the office of the CEB or NWSDB and report to them and pay the bills? The meters can be checked by the officers of the respective agencies at the end of every year to check whether meter reading by the consumers have been correct. This will also save the money that is being spent by these agencies as salaries to meter readers which I guess to be a quite a huge amount.

Bandurathna Hettiarachchi