Long queues will soon be a thing of the past

Ranchi, April 6: Paying telephone bills will soon become cakewalk for BSNL basic and cellular phone subscribers in the Jharkhand capital.

The BSNL Ranchi telecom circle has decided to put drop boxes at all the minor telephone exchanges like Lalpur, Mecon, CMPDIL, CCL headquarters at Darbhanga House, Dipatoli Cantonment and BIT, Mesra.

The subscribers can pay their bill by dropping cheques in the drop boxes.

Ranchi Telecom DGM (finance) A.K. Roy said PCOs and postal agents would be pressed into service for distribution of bills and collection of payment through cheques.

However, those paying in cash, will still have to visit the 134 counters, including 15 at BSNL offices and rest at post offices and banks.

The Ranchi Telecom first experimented with postal agents in BIT, Mesra, in January and Ashok Nagar in February and the response from both the places had been exceptionally good.

The collection from Mesra was cent per cent in January, Roy said.

Distribution and collection of bills from Ashok Nagar, RMCH and Dhurwa areas had always been a problem. Using postal agents seem to be a good solution to this, Roy said. The PCOs, too, can be used for the distribution of bills and collection of cheque payments, he added.

BSNL has entered into an agreement with UTI Bank for cheque-lifting facility.

The bank will collect cheque everyday from BSNL counters and do the processing for a fee.

The Ranchi Telecom has also decided to enter into an agreement with HDFC Bank soon to accept payments through credit and debit cards.

There are about 80,000 landline, 9,000 WLL, 15,000 post-paid and over a lakh pre-paid mobile subscribers of BSNL in Ranchi. Even the number of broadband users is about 5,000 in the capital.

Meanwhile, PCO operators at villages, with only local call facility, will get 50 per cent commission per call, while STD public telephone operators will get 30 to 35 per cent commission from April 1. But, the BSNL has also decided to impose minimum guarantee of Rs 300 from each STD and PCO booths.

Sources said the BSNL generated 5 per cent less revenue compared to previous financial year in the state and its profit percentage, too, was less by 1.2 per cent in the last fiscal even as its expenses have gone up by 11 per cent.