By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

Starting April 1, electricity and water consumers will have to pay their bills through e-channels only, according to a Kahramaa decision.
The Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) will stop sending bills by post after that date.  This will help save millions of  riyals every year on postal stamps, printing of the bills and other expenses.
Senior Kahramaa officials said the decision was made in line with the corporation’s commitment to provide high-quality services to about 296,000 consumers across the country.
As a first step towards the implementation of some of the corporation’s new initiatives Kahramaa has stopped the customer service centres at the Doha City Center and General Post Office.    However, all other customer services at Wakrah, Al Khor, Madinat Khalifa, Salwa Road and Mushereib will continue to receive customers, except for the payment of utility bills.   
While disclosing the Kahramaa’s plans to improve the customer services which they described as the most vital component of the corporation’s day-to-day activities, the officials hoped the country’s residents would make use of the new electronic payment facilities and other provisions which are available on the Kahramaa website.
Speaking at the meeting, Abdulla Ali al-Diyab, Manager of the Quality and Continuous Improvement Department, said as many as five new electronically-linked services, all of which were developed in-house by  the corporation’s IT team, were now made available to the consumers.
Describing the new services as part of the commitment made by the corporation in the phase 1 of its “customer-oriented utility” programme,  al-Diyab said customers could now avail of all services on their iPhone or smartphone (both through an SMS message to 92772), by clicking the appropriate link on the Kahramaa website.
The website also has provisions for such options as downloading of different forms for availing a range of the corporation’s services, frequently asked questions and suggestions (including complaints) to be made to the corporation.
Under the new arrangement as many as 11 forms could be downloaded from the website. The customers can choose their personal requirements and could download the required forms.
The new options were added to eliminate the delay, if any, in providing some of the most essential services to the consumers.
In the second phase, there would be provisions for submitting tenders and quotations online and this is expected to be implemented in the third phase of this year, said the Kahramaa official.
Al-Diyab said the bill payments could be made using the credit cards of banks operating in Qatar, which are linked to the Kahramaa system. The customers could make use of the payment options as those available on the corporation’s website, ATMs of QNB which has the facility for receiving Kahramaa payments or Qtel kiosks available in different parts of the country.
“Now onwards the customers need not go to the customer service centres either for making payments of the utility bills or downloading forms for availing some of the services,” said al-Diyab.
He said the new services come into force following a customer satisfaction survey carried out by an international consultant.
Under the new arrangement, an electronically-linked service for tracking building permits, connection, and application for installing water and electricity meters, has been made among other facilities.
The modified website also mentions the tariffs charged for the utilities under different categories. The corporation’s services are already available on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Along with al-Diyab, manager of IT Department Ebrahim Mohamed Ibrahim al-Emadi,  head of Planning & Bulk Customers at CSD Hassan Mohamed al-Hail and Head of PR Department Mohamed Saleh al-Mohannadi also explained the initiatives made by the corporation in line with the goals and objectives of the Qatar National Vision 2030 to provide improved services to the consumers.
For details of the new services visit www.kh.com.qa