In addition, when we specifically consider utility billing services rather than resources in general, specialists in this sector today prefer to think of it as a social and economic good, and not just as an economic good.
According to this point of view, not water, but services included in the supply of drinking water have a price; therefore, water should be seen as a commodity, not a commodity. It is obvious, however, that the concept of water as an economic good has contributed significantly to promoting the principle that water supply services have a price that consumers must pay, and this has become a decisive but insufficient step towards improved cost recovery. More recently, experts and governments have realized that development must be demand-driven in order to stimulate a sense of ownership and willingness to pay.
Finally, there is a tendency today to believe that private sector participation is essential to the effectiveness and sustainability of financing. So, what needs to be done to achieve sustainable cost recovery with utility billing?
It could be said that the solution is based on a balanced application of all the concepts and principles mentioned above, a form of syncretism in which everything is in the melting pot. Decades of conceptual evolution, directly or indirectly associated with cost recovery, have revealed some generally accepted fundamental principles, such as the fact that users must pay for water services and that communities have a role to play. play in water management and gender mainstreaming. At the same time, one of the results of this evolution was to show that there are no plans generally applicable to all situations and all contexts. However, certain factors can contribute to sustainable cost recovery and can be adjusted and adapted to local conditions.
One of the reasons cost recovery is such a difficult goal is because it is influenced by many factors and as many projects and operations as there are parties involved. Several water and sanitation projects begin without fully realizing the importance of the relationship.
The community utility billing services level of service (for example, public fountains, water taps, etc.) or the institutional structure is often chosen before the start of the project – either because the project seeks to strengthen the existing water supply system or because planners believe that they identified the best In this case, the problem of cost recovery is perceived as the need to collect sufficient income from users to cover the cost of the installed system.
The task begins with forcing people to use the system and charge them. In this suboptimal situation, strategies may include:
(1) consumer education and awareness-raising campaigns,
(2) improving relationships with consumers,
(3) breaking the culture of defaults,
(4) changing institutional structures to change incentives for billing and payment, or
(5) review of tariff structure and connection costs; perhaps by creating different tariff structures for the poor. It is important to involve people in covering the cost of a particular service, but this is not the only approach to improving cost recovery. Changing the cost or features of this service can also help improve cost recovery.
This perspective presents another set of possible strategies for achieving cost recovery:
(1) changing technologies and service levels,
(2) improving the quality and reliability of services, or
(3) reducing operating costs. ” The BPD report also mentions that: “Some projects are trying to improve cost recovery not by improving revenue collection, but by increasing water consumption.
However, this document proposes to propose the implementation of a cost-recovery strategy in a broader perspective. Cost recovery should be considered not only as an attempt to apply a number of corrective measures for insufficient revenue collection, but rather as an integrated approach that can be planned from the very beginning. This strategy is based on a number of interdependent factors that have been grouped into two main chapters:
1) a cost recovery plan;
2) The application of cost recovery in practice.
Utility billing services today occupy a significant part of the budget of each person and family, so it is important to arrange the payment of bills correctly and in a timely manner so as not to lose more money.