Natural gas customers in Barbados will begin receiving a newly designed upgraded bill from next month.

This comes as the National Petroleum Corporation (NPC) moves to add even greater convenience to it natural gas service and to give customers a lot more information than could previously be facilitated on their bills.

New items being included on the upgraded bills will include the service address, a past payment summary, and an important information section with safety tips, notices and so on. In addition to clearly visible billing address, account number, current usage and arrears items, the new bill will feature expanded bill message and itemised charges sections.

The Corporation is also promising that the new bills will be easier for customers to read than previously. Customers are being urged to look out for the upgraded bills and to pay careful attention to all sections of the new design to ensure a smooth transition.

The introduction of this new bill follows several improvements and the computerisation of many processes taking place at the Corporation including the implementation of an Automatic Meter Reading System and changes to the disconnection process.

As a result of these developments, customers are being advised to bring their accounts up to date prior to the introduction of the new billing system.

Customers are also advised to be aware that following the introduction of the upgraded bills, there will be a major change to the disconnection schedule for bills remaining unpaid after the period for which they were issued.  Customers will no longer be allowed to carry arrears accrued from the previous month on current bills, and accounts with arrears will be due for disconnection if not paid by the due date.

Further, the NPC has made arrangements to be integrated into the SurePay system, and good news for natural gas customers is that coming early in 2009, following the introduction of the new billing system, customers will have the added convenience of paying their bills at any of the many SurePay locations available.