There is no plan to increase power and water tariff for the next two years, a senior official of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has said, calling on consumers to pay their bills promptly without allowing them to accumulate.

He has also called on all owners’ associations in the freehold property areas in the emirate to furnish the authority with the correct information, contact addresses and property ownership deeds to help the authority send the electricity and water bills to the consumers.

Abdullah Al Hajri. Executive Vice-President, Customer Services, Dewa, said this information will help the authority in keeping in touch with the associations of the freehold building units in the emirate regarding the overall services rendered by it.

“The authority deals with account numbers and not with persons,” he said.

“I have had the pleasure to deal with owners’ associations, to discuss with them and suggest solutions.

“They have to prove their ownership so that the authority can deal with them,” he said.

He also said these associations have to solve the problems that arise between them and the developer to determine who will pay the accumulated bills before forming the association.

Unavailable information in the past had resulted in losing contact and communication between the authority and the house owner and delay in paying the bills, which in some cases took more than two years.

The authority, however, will update the information of the owners’ associations which it had dealt with earlier, he said.

This measure will stave off disconnection of power and water supply, he said. The authority would communicate with the house owner registered with it and send the bills to that address.

Al Hajri said the authority has a long procedure to recover accumulated bill amounts. If the recovery becomes too difficult, it will disconnect the water supply which, he described, as a secondary service not affecting the safety systems, lifts, refrigerators and other services.

The authority will discontinue the services only after exhausting all options to recover the amounts by sending him the bills every month, sending SMSes and then warning him/her on the phone before pasting a warning notice on the building. If the consumer fails to contact the authority even after that, the water supply will be cut first.

He called on all Dewa customers not to delay paying the bills, which may accumulate and become huge in the end.