About 34,000 utility bills were paid through Nadra kiosks machines during the month November 2006 while authority intends to increase the number of kiosk machines up to 240 in addition to 200 facility centre at Nadra centers across the country.
Lieutenant Colonel Khalid Hamid Shah (Retd) General Manger Public Service Division, Nadra revealed this during a press briefing held here on Friday. Presently, 200 kiosk machines are operational in the country out of which 35 were set up in Lahore region. There are 323 Nadra centers working in the country out of which facility for payment of utility bills would be provided on 200 centers. Only the difference is that an official of Nadra would collect bills amount from Nadra center, while at kiosk centers, the machines would accept the bills amount, he added.
Giving details, he said that payments of 13877 electricity, 11526 gas and 8615 telephone bills have been made and 128 pin codes of scratch cards have been obtained through these machines. These statistics would prove to be a source of encouragement to the authority not only in its future endeavours but also allow it for further expand this kiosk machine facility to every nook and corner of the country. 'We are going to install machines at tehsil level and down to tehsil level to facilitate the rural people and union council in the city. We made the target of people queues outside the banks so that they could be facilitated. In Punjab, more than 28,000 bills have been paid by the citizens through these kiosk machines', he maintained.
To a question, the General Manager said that a machine costs Rs 400,000 to Nadra and the finances were arranged by Nadra from its own resources. Nadra has issued 5.7 million computerised national identity cards within a period of four years, he added.