Comment Pieces

Facilitating Corruption

“Last month he came demanding arrears to be cleared and we had to give a cheque but immediately found that the bill had been cleared through ECS 4 days earlier. We had to stop cheque payment.”

The whole point of having an Electronic Clearing Services arrangement, a system that allows citizens to pay off bills directly through your bank, is to ensure prompt payment of bills on the due date. As far as most leading national and private banks are concerned, this function is carried out flawlessly. Yet, a civic authority in Bangalore has qualms in claiming payment of bills, or so they say.

A citizen from Bangalore reports the harassment he has been facing by an employee of the local electricity board. He reportedly shows up at the respondents doorstep, demanding the payment of arrears even though the bank has cleared the pending bills. Such behaviour defeats the purpose of having a service that intends to lessen the trouble involved in paying off bills.