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Stabroek News

Bill payment agencies may be sued
published: Friday | August 25, 2006

The Consumer Advisory Committee on Utilities (CACU) says it is not ruling out taking legal action against bill payment agencies that continue to charge customers who use their services.

Yasmin Chong, chairperson for the CACU, stressed yesterday that customers already pay a service charge within the tariff charged by the utility companies.

Her comments came following questions posed by journalists at a media briefing hosted by the CACU at the Office of Utilities Regulation's (OUR) New Kingston offices.

Earlier this year bill payment agencies Bill Express and Paymaster both slapped customers with a service charge of $35 and $30 respectively.

"We really believe that this is an issue that we are not going to leave alone. It is just unacceptable," Ms. Chong said. "We are going to explore all the options available to us ... our actions can be more effective because we are not just singing a song."

Increases in tariffs

Addressing claims by the bill payment agencies that the fee received from the utility companies is low, and has not been changed since 2000, Ms. Chong said that most utility companies had received increases in their tariffs which include the transaction fee and, as such, should have passed the incremental increases, for that component, on to their collection agents.

She added that the committee will challenge the OUR to exert more pressure on the utility companies to resolve the matter by directing the utility companies to remit the incremental increases which were awarded in the tariff reviews of previous years.

The CACU head is urging consumers to boycott the agencies in an effort to end the problem.

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