Making utility bill payment easier

I want to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to an important issue that we face almost every month, which is payment of WASA, DESCO, BTCL etc. bills. Among the arrangements available for payment of such bills, payment at the bank is the most common. The regular banking hour is 10am to 4pm, but the banks collect utility bills till only 1 pm, which causes serious difficulty for the clients. Most bill payers find it hard to go to the bank every month for bill payment during prime office hours. So they pay two to three months' bills at a time, which is a large amount of money, and add to that the fine for late payment. This is a huge pressure for the people. It also takes a long time to collect the bills of one user and so the queue never ends. The service providing agencies also suffer as they are deprived of regular cash flow.

In order to mitigate the sufferings of the commoners, I propose that the counters for bill payment be kept open for the entire banking hours on the banking days. This would improve the bill collection performance as well.