Electricity Billing Systems at Residential Level in Sylhet City: Is Pre-Paid System perceived as a Better Option by the Subscribers?

Abstract

The introduction of Pre-Paid billing system for electricity at households are claimed to be an addition to the convenience of subscribers, especially by excusing the hassles of bills payments associated to the Post-Paid system. Among the other benefits of Pre-Paid system, user control over electricity consumption, freedom from discrepancies regarding to billing etc. are largely spoken about. These conveniences brought by the Pre-Paid billing system should therefore, obviously result in a higher satisfaction level of the subscribers compared to those of the Post-Paid system. But, any such systematic and focused study is yet to have taken place, although that might carry mentionable significance from a number of perspectives. This study is a humble yet strongly rooted quest to address the very issues that contributes to the satisfaction levels of the subscribers of electricity at household levels. Conducted on 50 subscribers from both Pre-Paid and Post-Paid systems of Sylhet city, this study can be considered as ‘Small Scale’ that aims to construct a comparative picture of the satisfaction level of the subscribers of the two systems on the benchmark issues. The backbone of the study is the information acquired through a questionnaire survey conducted through ‘In Home’ type of personal interviewing. Along with the generation of findings, the study offers some implications and recommendation that may be used at policy levels.

Keywords: Pre-Paid and Post-Paid electricity billing system, Residential level electricity, Subscriber satisfaction, Comparative study, Questionnaire survey.