Round-off amounts show as credit on municipal accounts

Springs residents have noticed recently that their monthly accounts are being rounded off to the nearest Rand amount.

Tanya van Zyl claims it may be only a couple of cents, but she doesn’t feel the metro understands the full significance of this.

“Over and above extra money being charged to your account for which you have not given consent, there are not any services linked to the rounding of totals,” she says.

Making her sums roughly, she states the metro has an estimated 3.3-million residents and a total number of 1.04-million households, as per the 2011 census statistics.

“In six years, with a growth rate of two per cent per year, total households are at 1.144-million.

“If 60 per cent of those are actual paying customers, it will be 686k.

“Take 686k and multiply this amount with an average of 40c per month on each account, conservatively estimated, it gives the metro a total of R274 400 per month,” she says.

What she wants to know is where the money is going to, and for what is it being used.

Van Zyl claims she has not seen the over payment credited on her account at the end of the month.

Metro spokesperson Themba Gadebe says the rounding off of the accounts is only a measure to assist the cashiers in giving change to customers when a payment is made.

“However, the actual balance of the account is not changed as the surplus amount paid will show as a credit on the next month’s account,” he says.