Sharjah: Residents will now be able to pay their monthly electricity and water bills using any etisalat payment machine here.
The new facility was announced yesterday after an agreement was signed between Ebrahim Rashid Deemas, deputy director general of Sewa, and Abdul Aziz Taryam, general manager of etisalat in the Northern Emirates.
"The new service will save the time and effort of the customers, that will facilitate the process of residents when paying their monthly bills," said Deemas, who noted that the facility is available as of today.
"The new facility represents a part of the continuous efforts made by Sewa to provide customers with the ultimate convenience and the best quality of services," he said.
The facility was introduced due to the growing demand from the public who wanted a convenient method to settle their bills, Deemas said, adding that the new service is also designed to help serve consumers in line with the rapid urbanisation of Sharjah.
Sharjah residents expressed their optimism about the new service, and told Gulf News that they were relieved that they would no longer be required to wait for endless hours in the queue of Sewa branches.
"The main problem was the branches' opening hours. I would have to be late for work in the mornings so that I could pay my bills on time, and that would easily take me over two hours to do. Sometimes I would also have to postpone it for the next day because the computer system, on several occasions, stopped working," said Jihan.
The new service will also prevent imposters from stealing money from Sewa customers, and will provide a reliable payment for customers. A resident told Gulf News that while she was waiting to pay her Sewa bills, a man approached her and requested her to go to the ladies' waiting room, where she would then be able to pay her bills without any hassle of waiting.
Conned
"He took my details and my cash and then informed me to wait until he printed out the receipt. I waited for nearly an hour until I realised that I had been conned, and that the man did not work for Sewa at all," she said.
The woman in question however was unable to follow up her complaint since the office was not equipped with a closed circuit television (CCTV), and the culprit did not wear an identification tag.
Due to the amount of paper work involved, she was reluctant in lodging a complaint with Sharjah Police.
Have your say
Will this initiative make paying your bills more convenient? What more can be done to simplify such processes?Tell us.
