Penang: The Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) announced that water bills can no longer be paid at the post office or through several third-party collection agencies starting from next year, following instructions from the National Water Services Commission (SPAN).

According to BERNAMA News Agency, PBAPP chief executive officer Datuk K. Pathmanathan stated that collection agencies such as Pos Malaysia, Paylink, MobilityOne, and MBF will no longer accept payments for bills issued by PBAPP. "PBAPP has collaborated with these bill collection agencies for years, and last year, four of these agencies collected commissions for a total of 836,444 Penang water bill transactions, representing 27 percent of the total recorded water bill payment transactions," he explained.

Pathmanathan noted that the commission charges imposed by the agencies range between RM0.40 and RM0.90 per transaction, and these charges are collected independently and directly from Penang water consumers. He emphasized that PBAPP never profited from bill collection through third parties, stressing that its relationship with the various collection agencies was solely for the convenience of Penang water users.

He further explained that as of February this year, SPAN announced that Penang water consumers could not be imposed commission charges for bill collection directly. Several PBAPP appeals were rejected, with SPAN stating that PBAPP would have to bear the commission costs if it wanted to allow water bill collection through third parties that charged commissions.

Pathmanathan assured that Penang water users still have other options to pay their water bills without commission charges. These options include the myPBA mobile app, myPBA portal, JomPay Bill Code: 50385, Maybank2U, Easy Pay, or in person at nine customer service centers operated by PBAPP.