Pakistan Post planning to expand utility bills payment service

The news that post offices in Rawalpindi will soon be providing the service of collection/payment of utility bills through cheques at the customers’ doorstep will definitely bring relief to the ordinary citizens considering the hardships they have to endure in the payment of bills at banks. A similar scheme is already in operation in Karachi. But unfortunately it has not been much of a success as only a limited number of post offices are said to be offering this service. It is sincerely hoped that the government will expand the range of this facility in Karachi by including more post offices under this scheme, including other cities such as Rawalpindi.

The postal department has levied a service charge of Rs20 (0.16 pence) on collection of bills through checks from homes. This amount might seem paltry to some, but for those from low-income groups, even this amount will seem high considering that their bills might only be a few hundred rupees. The fee structure should be restructured in such a way that it also takes into consideration this aspect. While this scheme is definitely a welcome development vis-a-vis the utility bills collection/payment system, more needs to be done to further facilitate the citizens. In this context, the government cannot only increase the bank branches collecting utility bills but also make the bill collection timings more flexible.

Moreover, the deadline for payment of bills should be more expansive, that is deadlines should be varying for different customers as this will solve the problem of everyone rushing to pay their bills on the same deadline.