The Water Board has decided to convert all dockets into spot-billing and collection will be done with hand-held online electronic point of sale (EPOS) machines. The private firms will get a two-year contract to undertake billing and collection with online EPOS machines. The Board has already invited tenders from interested firms and the last date for submission of bids is October 20.

Speaking to Expresso, HMWS&SB officials said each docket would have between 1,000 to 1,500 consumer account numbers (CANS). Under the system, a certain number of consumers can be managed by one meter reader, to form a ‘docket’ and allotted to the outsourcing agency.

Docket of CANs will be loaded in an EPOS machine. The selected firms have to pay a specified amount for each docket as advance. After depositing the money with HMWS&SB, the machine will be activated for issue of receipts from the deposited amount.

The collection mechanism will be automatically locked once the total amount collected reaches the deposit amount paid by the agency. The lock will be released for subsequent collections only after the money is re-deposited. The Water Board has used the system on an experimental basis a few months ago. “It proved to be a success and we decided to replicate the same in all divisions,” officials said. They said the value of transactions up to Rs 500 is 10 per CAN per month,for transactions above Rs 500 and up to Rs 1000, Rs 15 per CAN, for above Rs 1,000, it will to be Rs 20 per CAN and for anything above Rs 10,000, it will be Rs 25 per CAN.

Collection from a metered bill will be Rs 3 and for un-metered or locked bill, it will be Rs 2. However, payment will be made only after production of acknowledgements in support of bill. Spot bills would be generated and delivered for all downloaded services. If any bill was found pending after the 15 of every month, a penalty will be levied.