Joburg billing plan launched

Johannesburg - The city of Johannesburg unveiled a three-phase plan on Tuesday to improve revenue management.

This followed the over-billing and disconnections of many Johannesburg residents for rates and utilities.

The plan would seek to fix incorrect bills, improve the quality of meter readings and update customer information, city manager Trevor Fowler said.

The plan set deadlines for these objectives to be met.

Phase one included billing accuracy, better customer service, and holding officials accountable for mistakes. This was scheduled to be achieved by February 28 2012.

Phase two would include IT infrastructure and hardware upgrades to enable correct billing, with a deadline of June 30 2013 for completion.

The last phase would focus on maintaining improvements made.

Fowler said the plan would be funded from improved collections. This was possible because the number of accurately billed customers increased in the first quarter of the current financial year.

"We appeal to our customers to be patient while we introduce and implement this very detailed plan," Fowler said.

"We assure you that our objective is to clean up our billing and land information systems and significantly improve the quality of our customer relations."

The ANC for the Johannesburg region welcomed the city's announcement, saying this was a step in the right direction.

Spokesperson Jolidee Matongo urged Johannesburg residents to pay their accounts.