Opposition Spokesman on Utilities Clive Mullings - file
Opposition spokesman on Utilities, Clive Mullings, says utility companies ought to pay bill payment agencies for service charges.
Mr. Mullings' comments come in light of a move by some utility
companies to close down their bill payment services and outsource them to bill payment agencies, subjecting their customers to an extra service cost.
Jamaica's two bill agencies, Bill Express and Paymaster, are now charging a service fee of between $30 and $35 for any transactions at any of their locations.
Director-General of the Office of Utilities Regulation, the OUR, J. Paul Morgan, told The Gleaner last week that the regulations body was powerless to stop utility companies from outsourcing their bill payment services because there was no such clause in their licences. He adds that this was so because the licenses pre-dated bill payment agencies.
The alternative
But Mulliings said this cannot be so. "If the utility company seeks to engage the agencies to collect their revenue, then the utility company must pay the agency, because you can't bill me and then charge on top of that to pay you," said Mr. Mullings. He says customers should only pay a service charge when they elect to go elsewhere instead of going to the company directly.
"When the company continues to outsource and reduce the avenue of payment to themselves, there is not a real alternative," he added.
He says while there might not be a clause in any of the licenses, the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is already including a bill payment service charge in their rate and so should not force their
customers to pay for any further service charge. JPS signed an agreement with Paymaster in March to accept some of its customer service responsibilities and collect bill
payments.
"Though it is not spelled out in the terms of their license, it's a part of the rate so you must recalibrate the rate, bring it down to accept the fact that they can no longer earn from that," Mr. Mullings says.
