Chattogram: Chattogram WASA has stepped up efforts to recover Tk 259 crore in outstanding revenue from consumers amid a record rise in revenue collection over the past two months.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, Chattogram WASA's monthly revenue collection had historically remained between Tk 18 crore and Tk 20 crore. However, the organisation collected a record Tk 26.80 crore in July and Tk 26.53 crore in August. Engineer Selim Md Jane Alam, Managing Director of Chattogram WASA, said special emphasis has been placed on recovering outstanding revenue.
To intensify field-level efforts, eight monitoring committees have been formed comprising system analysts, computer programmers, executive engineers, revenue officers, revenue supervisors, and meter inspectors. The teams are working on an area-wise basis to recover outstanding bills from consumers. "Eight monitoring teams, comprising officials from the revenue and engineering departments, are actively working in the field to collect outstanding revenue on an area-wise basis. For the past two months, the teams have been conducting field operations in seven-day cycles. They are contacting consumers with outstanding bills in designated areas and encouraging them to clear their dues," the WASA managing director said.
He said the teams are primarily focusing on motivating consumers to pay their outstanding bills. Earlier, the drive targeted consumers with arrears of more than Tk 50,000. This time, a seven-day campaign has been launched against consumers with outstanding dues exceeding Tk 25,000, he said, adding that the results would be evaluated after completion of the campaign.
According to an official directive, connections of consumers having outstanding dues of more than Tk 25,000 may be disconnected after on-site inspections in the respective areas to accelerate the recovery of arrears. The managing director said the intensified drive to recover outstanding revenue has already started producing positive results.
He said members of the monitoring teams have been instructed to submit daily reports on their activities to their respective supervising officers. The teams have also been directed to update the WASA customer database by collecting current information on consumers with outstanding dues. The reports will include the account number, date of notice issuance, total outstanding amount, amount recovered, date of recovery, latest mobile number of the customer, and reasons for non-recovery.
"Information on unlicensed deep tube wells will also be included in the reports. This initiative will help create a reliable database containing the number of customers with significant arrears in specific areas, their actual locations, the operational status of their connections, and their bill-payment regularity," he said. "In particular, this will help verify the current connection status of long-term defaulters and facilitate necessary action against them," he added.