The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) on Thursday submitted before the Kerala High Court that power supply would not be disconnected on grounds of non-payment of electricity charges for the lockdown period.
The submission was made when a writ petition seeking a directive to introduce monthly billing system for domestic consumers, instead of the present bimonthly billing, came up for hearing.
The KSEB submitted that domestic consumers would be allowed to remit half the bill amount for the months of April, May, and June 2020 before June 15 or the due date of the bill whichever was later. The balance amount can be paid in two equal instalments in the subsequent monthly/bimonthly bills, based on their request.
It added that surcharge was not made applicable to belated payment of electricity bills issued/ or became due from the time of commencement of the period of the lockdown, till May 16. In fact, a rebate of 25% on fixed charges applicable to all industrial, commercial, and private hospitals for the months of March, April, and May 2020 had been allowed. It was also decided to defer the payment of balance fixed charge up to December 15 without levying interest.
The KSEB also said in a statement that online transaction charges, in applicable cases, would be borne by the board for a period of three months up to July 19. Non-domestic consumers who were billed on previous average consumption were permitted to remit 70% of the demand as their bill amount, if they so desired.
These decisions were taken as all classes of consumers were experiencing difficulties in paying electricity bills due to the cash crunch brought about by the lockdown. During the lockdown period people were required to stay indoors which resulted in more power consumption than usual.
As many as 97 lakh consumers were now being billed in the bimonthly cycle. And converting them into the monthly cycle would lead to doubling of labour and resource mobilisation.
