Who ever thought that during a pandemic water could be such a mess. The national water utility (AyA) registered more than 2,000 outstanding unresolved complaints last month, reported the Regulatory Authority for Public Services (Aresep), which last week inspected the institution’s headquarters to address the issue of irregular collections. This is in addition to over 6,000 automatic reports from the system for suspicious diparities in their last billing. And of course dont forget the countless unaswered phone calls and emails of users trying to figure out why in some cases they are seeing their bills spike over 10 times their normal amount.
The error comes from the fact that meter readers were not working for the month of March and April due to the quarantine, in May the data entered into the system reflected the real consumption for the three months, not taking into account the averaged payment made for the first two. That is, since the last time your water meter was read was in February, in the May reading, the consumption billed was from that reference point.
Errors in this procedure caused a higher consumption to be calculated by the user, so the AyA proceeded to collect the Value Added Tax (VAT) on those amounts. Because of this, AyA must review those amounts collected and reimburse them accordingly, as well as coordinate with the Ministry of Finance so that the subscriber does not have to process the request for these excess monies collected.
Important that the adjustment will be made automatically, so there is no need for the user to file a complaint or join the hundreds who have lined up outside the AyA offices opened on Monday to deal face-to-face with user complaints. “Both the adjustment to billing and the VAT will be made automatically, so there is no need for the user to carry out any formalities with the institution or with the Ministry of Finance (for the VAT),” the utility assured.
The adjustments in the amounts will begin to be reflected starting Monday, June 22 for users who source the metropolitan aqueduct (that is the Greater Metropolitan Area), and starting Friday, June 26 for the rest of the country.
