Section 5 in The Standards Of Quality Of Service (Broadcasting And Cable Services) (Cable Television-Cas Areas) Regulation, 2006
5. Billing Procedure and billing related complaints in respect of cable services in CAS areas .-
5.1Subscribers in CAS areas shall generally be billed on monthly basis and the bill should indicate the Service Tax Registration Number, Entertainment Tax Registration number of the MSO or the cable operator, as the case may be, as applicable. The entries in the bills must be itemized to separately indicate price of individual pay channel(s) or bouquet(s) of pay channels and the names of channels in the bouquet, as applicable, charges for basic service tier and the channels comprised therein, charges for set top box, amount of each type of tax levied and the rate thereof. This clause, however, does not preclude a cable operator/MSO, from promoting different schemes of payment in which case the bills can be raised at such periodicity as per the scheme opted by the subscriber.5.2The subscribers shall ensure prompt payment of all bills within 7 days from the date of receipt of the bill. Any payment done after the expiry of 7 days shall attract simple interest @ 15% p.a. on the amount of bill delayed. The interest for such delayed payment shall be calculated on a pro-rata basis for the number of days of delay. For each and every payment made by a subscriber, the cable operator /MSO, as the case may be, shall issue a proper receipt.5.3The following procedure will normally be followed for raising of bills, delivery of bills and collection of payments thereof:--(i)In respect of subscriber opting to watch pay channels through a set top box, a single bill will be generated by the MSO, indicating the charges for pay channels as well as channels forming part of the basic service tier. The subscriber should be required to make only one payment.(ii)In respect of subscribers who do not opt to watch pay channels through the set top box, the monthly bill shall be raised and the proceeds collected by the cable operator.5.4The billing system should be such that the following benchmarks are met:-(i)Complaints relating to billing shall be addressed within 7 days of notice from the subscriber,(ii)Refunds must be issued within 30 days following the resolution of the complaint or before the next billing cycle whichever is earlier.
