Uganda: Why Is Umeme Reluctant About Prepaid Meters and Instant Billing?

25 November 2011
opinion

On Saturday, November 12 while on my way to the village, I went listening to a Luganda radio programme talking about the problems faced by Umeme electricity consumers. The problems ranged from weeks and months without electricity, frequent long loading-shedding without warning, inflated electricity bills not commensurate with consumption, extortion through disconnection by alleged Umeme staff/agents and numerous other problems I thought were fiction. When I came back from the village on Thursday night, I found a bill for Shs121,189, which had been delivered on Wednesday, November 16. I rounded up the bill and paid Shs122,000 on Monday, November 21. However, we were disconnected in the afternoon of November 23 and I found a "disconnection order" dated November 23 with an authoritative note saying "Reconnection can only be authorised after payment of Shs121,188 plus a reconnection fee of Shs11,800 per meter". I was infuriated and went to the Umeme office at Kitintale and I perhaps overreacted and refused to accept the apologies of the lady who handled the problem. I apologise to the lady manager. Power was soon restored by the young man who had disconnected it earlier but it gave me an opportunity to reflect on the Umeme billing system.

The Umeme bill had interesting information. The meter reading date is October 17, the billing date October 18 and the 'payment due' date is November 1. But the bill was delivered on November 16, more than two weeks after the payment due date. On the payment receipt there is a figure of 'total outstanding' amount which is not reflected on the bill and therefore after payment of the bill there is something called 'provisional balance', meaning the amount for the next bill is known but no bill is issued at that stage. Why? I asked the lady who handled my problem whether it is not possible that consumers may be disconnected before they receive their bills and she said that it is possible. The fact that Umeme billing is slow affects its cash flow, which may necessitate borrowing from banks when it need not do so. I have noticed that the young man who delivers bills is not an Umeme employee and the one who disconnected and reconnected us was dressed in a brand new uniform bearing another name not Umeme. This indicates that Umeme's sub-contractors (bill deliverers and power disconnectors) may have a symbiotic relationship such that late deliveries of bills may be helpful to the business interests of the power disconnectors. This is a probable scenario, otherwise, why would Umeme not be anxious to collect its money as quickly as possible?

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