Queueing up to pay your electricity bill

YOGYAKARTA, 12 March 2008 - It is nothing more than a monthly returning event if you look at it; paying your electricity bill. Somewhere in the last two days of the month an employee from the Indonesian state-run electricity company PLN (Perusahan Listrik Negara) comes to write down the current meter reading on the card and also enters these numbers in his handheld computer. After that he walks through the garden to the neighbors to continue his way.

You would say that most work is done with that, but that is not entirely true. Paying your bill has to be done every month here to avoid fines or in an even worse scenario they will cut off your connection. This is where the problems show op; PLN is a state-run company and not one of the fastest in starting with 'online' payments (via internet) or a good customer service.

Until several years ago you could pay for your electricity bills at a local branch of the BRI bank (state-run bank, that's why) in cash. In more recent years new possibilities for paying your electricity bills at post offices, other banks and some shopping malls have become widely used as well. You will have to pay a small fee for that, but you don't have to wait very long usually. No fees are calculated at the kiosks, because they are owned by PLN. Paying your bills is only possible between the 7th and the 21st of the month however.

Paying at those locations earlier than the 7th is not possible and paying later than the 21st is not possible as well. At least that is clear communication from a company. If you want to pay late you can - together with hundreds of others - go to the local headquarters to queue up. If you are lucky they have installed air conditioning by now and you are able to take a number, otherwise it could turn out a little bit more awkward than you had probably hoped for in the first place.

I always try to pay my bills as early as possible, at least far before the payment is due. In general it is still not that crowded, so I can finish my payments in a matter of a few minutes. Of course I could ask someone to help me paying my bills, but the bank is close and it's also on the way when I go out to buy fresh bread, so I don't see the problem in hopping by at the bank as well to give them my Rupiah's.

The local office of BRI is a small and old building along the main road. The walls are painted brightly blue and there are a big number of old couches which are used as a waiting area. That is the only luxury you will find here, because normally you will get a wooden bench or a simple plastic chair to sit on while waiting for your turn. Since this was a normal bank building as well, most people were waiting for their normal banking business. Those who had to pay their bill sat down in the first few couches for the woman behind the counter to tall the name on the bills.

Those who want to pay - or have to pay more likely - put one of the earlier bills in a small basket. This basked is empties and turned around, so the longest waiting customers will be able to pay first. This is if you do like the other people here and put your bill on top of all the others, because the woman behind the counter will turn them all around when she takes them out. If you cheat a little bit, you can save quite some time waiting; mainly of use when you want to pay later on the day or later in the month when the 21st is rapidly approaching.

Two invoices from PLN which you receive when you pay your bill at the counter of a bank or local branch of PLN. © indahnesia.com.

When you know the system, you can also use it. Polite? Most likely not, but you should not expect that the rest of these paying customers is polite as well, because that is nothing short of an illusion, even if it may not seem like that. I tried it and put my bill at the very bottom of the pile. Within a few minutes the entire pile was grabbed out. The papers were then organized into a pile before the first name was called. Amazingly I was the very first one to be allowed to pay my bill.

Before paying there was not a single person that told me that it was strange that I was first of all people queuing because I cam in last. After I had paid the situation was still the same. No visible strange faces, even not a sigh about the fact that I entered last and went out first. Fairly normal behavior and I learned that it is pretty okay to skip the row, even if there is an organized form of waiting. This is just some compensation for the times when there is only an 'Indonesian' kind of queue and when people start pushing and shoving as if they are in the biggest hurry.