Natural gas customers in Craig will see another slight increase on their bills in the near future because Greeley Gas Company failed to charge customers for the increase in city sales tax that went into effect Jan. 1.

Customers will see a one-quarter of 1 percent charge added to their bills; however, officials are still not sure when that charge will reach customers.

“Somehow along the line there was confusion as to our billing department being notified to the increase in Craig’s sales tax,” Greeley Gas spokesperson Karen Wilkes said. “The city had sent a number of items to our company letting us know that they were going to be raising their tax, but somehow it never reached our billing department.

“It was our fault, not the city of Craig. We are going be the ones responsible for collecting the money.”

Greeley Gas distributed six months of bills before being made aware of the change, so customers will have to pay the increase for the months between January and July. For customers with a $200 monthly gas bill, a 50 cent charge will be added for each of the months that the company did not collect the tax, which equals $3.50 in city sales tax for the entire six-month period.

Craig voters elected to increase the city sales tax from 2 percent to 2.5 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2001.

“We had no idea it happened,” Wilkes said. “So we called the city, and sure enough, we had it wrong. Right now, our billing department and our accountants are in the process of going through the past bills to determine what amount customers were undercharged.”

According to Wilkes, Greeley Gas will determine the amount that was not collected, write a check to the city for that amount, and be responsible for collecting that money from customers.

“It is very rare for something like this to happen, so we are trying to figure out the best way to collect the money, and just exactly what is still owed to the city of Craig,” she said. “Trying to go back through an oversight like this isn’t easy, but we are in the process of trying to get everything figured out.”

City Finance Director Bruce Nelson said the city notified Greeley Gas as to the change in the tax structure and now, the matter is no longer the city’s responsibility.

“We sent notices out to all of the businesses that work with the city as to the changes that were going to occur, so it is really out of our hands,” he said. “When I talked to Greeley, they said that they had missed it and they would make the necessary changes. For most residential customers, it won’t be a particularly big deal, but for some of the larger businesses, of course, they will have a little more to pay.”

The large number tax changes that have occurred in recent years, Nelson believes, may have led to the oversight.

“At the same time our tax rates for the city changed, so did the state’s,” he said. “We went from 2 percent to 2.5 percent, while the state went from 3 percent down to 2.9, so perhaps there was some confusion as to that, but we’re really not sure.

“There have been a number of tax changes throughout the state, whether it be county, city or state,” he said. “Lately, it seems as if tax rates have been changing at some level almost every year.”