KARACHI, Jan 23: Over 9,000 subscribers of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company suffer every month because of the defective billing mechanism.

Well-placed sources told Dawn here on Wednesday that in a given month a large number of those subscribers who pay their bills on the due date — and in some cases before the due date — receive the bills for the next month showing the previous month’s bills as unpaid.

“This happens mostly with those subscribers whose due date is the 24th of the month,” a senior official of the PTCL disclosed.

The phone utility issues bills to more than 800,000 subscribers with two due dates — the 22nd and the 24th of a given month.

The PTCL official added that according to government directives all utility companies are supposed to issue bills having due dates not later than the 20th of a given month. This serves two purposes, he elaborated.

“First, the government manages to collect revenue within the given month. Second, the subscribers — who are from the salaried class for the most part — find it easier to pay their utility bills between the 10th and the 20th of a given month.”

Insiders told Dawn that the Citibank is supposed to collect billing data from all banks and submit it to the PTCL within 72 hours.

“The bank where a subscriber pays his phone bill sends the data to its headquarters which, in turn, forwards it to the Citibank. Now the Citibank is bound to compile this data and give it to the PTCL within three days. Sometimes, the billing cycle is so tight that the PTCL fails to incorporate the data sent by the Citibank in time.”

Senior PTCL officials admitted that every month more than 9,000 subscribers suffer on this count.

Well-placed sources in the billing department told Dawn that every month the PTCL disconnects the lines of about 80,000 subscribers for the so-called non-payment of outstanding dues.

“With the massive reduction in installation charges, we have changed the rule for disconnection. Now those subscribers who are in arrears with one-month phone bill face disconnection. A large number of phones are disconnected — and that too before the due date — at times because of this lack of coordination.”

PTCL officials, however, defend the practice of disconnecting phone lines of those subscribers who have not paid a bill for one month.

“The reason that we disconnect phones so promptly is that we do not want the outstanding dues to accumulate and turn into bad debts. Recovery of dues has never been our strong point and we do not want outstanding dues to pile up.”

Analysts said that in order to do away with billing complaints the PTCL should initiate the practice of issuing prepaid packages for land lines. “If mobile companies can issue and manage prepaid packages, why can’t the PTCL?” they said, adding that prepaid packages would go a long way towards reducing billing complaints.