Where the project revenue stream comes from tariffs charged by the project company directly to consumers, the risk of collection shortfalls must be allocated. Where the project company is to bear this risk, the project company will need to have the right to collect tariffs directly from consumers and to impose sanctions on consumers for failure to pay tariffs, although in certain cases such sanctions may not be effective. For example, in certain legal systems it may be unlawful or impossible to cut off the services supplied to certain public establishments, such as schools and hospitals, or to individual households in which, for example, resides a registered dialysis patient.
Improving billing and collection can be politically challenging. In many cases, the people that do not pay their bills are government agencies who may feel that public agencies should not pay for public services. However, once PPP is implemented, those public agencies are generally expected to pay their bills. It will be difficult for a private sector operator to confront a government agency (for example, the Ministry of Defense or the Police Department) and demand payment.