IWK TARGETS 95pc BILL COLLECTION RATE
Firm looking at joint billing to recover outstanding bills, among others
NATIONAL sewerage company Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd (IWK) aims to improve its sewerage bill collection to 95 per cent this year from 88.7 per cent last year.
Chief executive officer Faizal Othman said the company targets to achieve this with several initiatives mooted since 2016, including a joint-billing system introduced in Labuan, Sabah.
“One of the things that the government wants us to look at is to join the water bill and sewerage bill because there is no point revising tariffs when collection is not improving.
“Since we started the joint billing in Labuan in 2016, our collection has improved from 60 per cent to 88.7 per cent,” he said on the sidelines of Trenchless Asia 2018, here, recently.
It was earlier reported that last year, IWK collected 88.7 per cent of the RM8 billion in sewerage bills, accumulated since 1997.
IWK has 3.6 million customers in 87 areas excluding Johor Baru and Pasir Gudang in Johor, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak.
Faizal said the company was working on e-billing initiative and its own app to provide convenience to customers to pay their sewerage bills anywhere, any time.
“We are looking at various strategies to collect the outstanding bills to ensure that our current collection improves. With the joint-billing and other efforts, I believe that we can hit our 95 per cent target,” he said.
The e-billing initiative and IWK app are part of the company’s IWK 2020 Transformation Plan (ITP2020) initiated last year.
Faizal said the four-year ITP2020 will focus on four pillars — human capital development, innovation, automation and technology and internalisation.
He said IWK has drawn up a strategic plan that will create a high-performance culture by promoting creativity and innovation through the Continuous Improvement Programme (CIP).
Since the CIP programme was initiated in 2009, 226 projects have been received, of which 25 selected projects would be implemented at IWK offices and sewage plants nationwide.
“With all the efforts, such as the use of green technology, innovation and technology, we hope IWK will become the world’s leading waste water company,” he said.