As the domestic and commercial category electricity consumers rue paying huge energy bills received this month based on the actual consumption for the last three months and political parties blame the two power distribution companies for the inflated billing method devised, efforts being made by officials have failed to cut ice with consumers so far.
Accepting complaints
Realising that their oral assurances of transparency in the billing system have failed to convince consumers, the two discoms have now decided to accept complaints on energy bills both physically in the electricity revenue offices and customer service centres, and also electronically over e-mail and on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
After receiving the complaint, the consumer concerned would be sent a billing worksheet within two days explaining how the bill has been arrived at.
On the general complaint that taking the three months’ average energy consumption was changing the billing category to LT-I(B)(ii) – consumption of above 200 units a month – from LT-I(B)(i) – consumption between 101 and 200 units – for most of the domestic consumers and from LT-I(A) to LT-I(B)(i) for some, the officials have little explanation to offer except that there was no other option but to divide the three months consumption into three parts since the actual consumption data was not collected in April and May.
However, they point out that “there’s no way to know the exact month-wise energy consumption” in March, April and May. “Even if we take the last year’s consumption for March and April, the bill for May consumption would be very high compared to previous months if the three months’ average consumption is more than 600 units,” an official said.
The officials also admit that the method implemented for billing the March-May consumption would be beneficial for some and result in loss to some others.
Calibration blues
Meanwhile, it is learnt that some technical snags in re-calibrating the hand-held devices used by energy meter readers to collect the data of actual energy consumption by consumers has also led to misgivings about the billing. Due to some errors committed in re-calibrating the devices, consumers in some areas have got the bills with electronically-generated bills for March and April consumption in April and May as paid although some consumers have not paid either one of the two months or both months.
‘Bill not inflated’
“Such bills give an impression that the consumer concerned has paid bills in April and May but by showing some amount in the arrears row of the bill, the amount to be paid has become inflated in spite of adjustment of the ‘amount paid’. However, the total bill amount is not inflated and is in tune with the energy consumed and actual payments made in April and May,” explains a Southern Discom official.
The Southern Discom has asked the consumers to lodge complaints by visiting their ERO or through e-mail to customerservice@tssourthernpower.com or on social media platform accounts: TsspdclCorporat@twitter and gmcsc.tsspdcl@facebook.com.
