Remember billing regionalisation?
City of Johannesburg’s ratepayers can now, since 1 February within each region, choose which day of the month they prefer to pay their municipal accounts, possibly leading to improved billing accuracy.
Early November last year, the finance department announced that billing regionalisation would be implemented from 1 February this year within regions A, B, C, E and Portion U (large usage consumers) and regions D, G and F from April. In May it will be fully implemented across the city.
This would affect the dates that ratepayers pay their bills, between the 15th and 28th of each month, spokesperson, Kgamanyane Maphologel said.
The first 15 days of each month are set for taking meter readings per region. This means that municipal bills will be paid in the same month the meter is read. Meters will, according to the department, be read every month. With the current system, revenue is only collected the month after billing.
The department believes that regionalisation is set to change things. Meter reading efficiency, billing accuracy and collections will improve if it is aligned with regions.
“Billing accuracy will improve and customer complaints will reduce and better service delivery awaits ratepayers,” Maphologela said.
Sociologist, Dr Liela Groenewald said it was difficult to predict whether regionalisation would lead to better service to residents. “If regional offices have backup electricity, excellent IT support so that computer systems are always online, qualified and well-trained staff with sufficient insight and authority to solve billing problems, effective checks on possible corruption, and if they are run well, then service can certainly improve,” she said.
Let us know what your experience with this new system is like by sending an email to editorial@caxton.co.za with the subject ‘Metro Billing’. You can see the latest water and electricity metering reading schedules at www.cityofjoburg.notification.mobi.
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