I would like to bring to the notice of the authorities concerned the fleecing of the consumers by the KESC. Unfortunately, our utility companies, when they were in public sector, shirked their responsibility of collecting their bills from their consumers.
The government has found an easy scapegoat in the form of the nationalised commercial banks and passed on this burden to them at a nominal fee of Rs 2.00 per bill. Recently, the State Bank of Pakistan made it obligatory for all commercial banks to accept the payment of utility bills, and they must also provide shelter and cold drinking water to the public coming to pay the bills. For this, they were allowed to charge Rs 8/- per bill. This was, no doubt, a great relief for the consumers.
It is the obligation of any vendor to make suitable arrangements for providing service to its customers, and this includes the collection of its dues from the customers in a convenient manner.
The utility companies are bound to pay these additional charges, not consumers. While telephone and gas companies are absorbing this charge, the KESC has started adding in its bills with an additional Rs 8/- as bank charges.
This has been quietly added since last July, without any announcements. I would like the State Bank to take notice of this and direct the KESC to refund all these charges to the consumers as this service is being provided by the banks, not to the consumers, but to the KESC.
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