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CUC to reformat general billing statements
Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Alan W. Fletcher has disclosed that the agency is currently working on reformatting the general billing and disconnection statements for its customers.
This, he said, is the management’s response to the request of the utilities board after the latter raised concerns over the implementation of Public Law 17-68. That law extends the grace period for residential customers to pay for utility services by 21 days after the billing due date.
Fletcher pointed out that CUC complies with the terms of this public law but it did initially create a cash flow problem for CUC as customers simply adjusted their payment schedules for the later date.
Saipan Tribune learned that questions concerning the effect of this law on the billing process came up at a recent CUC board meeting. At that time, management explained the collection process and how the law is being followed.
The board, Fletcher said, requested that billing statements be streamlined for better customer understanding.
“Staff are currently working on reformatting the general billing and disconnection statements in response to the board’s request,” he told Saipan Tribune.
P.L. 17-68 was enacted after the Legislature found that the CUC mails utility service billing statements to customers each month. Due to unforeseen circumstances with the postal services, residential customers may not receive their utility service billing statements in a timely manner. As such, residential customers have less time to collect the funds to pay their bills when they finally receive their billing statement. The Legislature found that this is especially true for residential customers on Tinian and Rota. Customers from Tinian and Rota often receive their billing statements after the disconnection notice has been placed in the mail.
