Power bill delay may lead to overcharging

Hyderabad: A large chunk of power consumers received their electricity bills for May 2019 on June 12 evening, a delay of four to five days. This is causing some worry as they have been billed for 32 to 35 days. Even a day's delay in calculating the meter reading will show increase in units consumed and that may change the charging slab, leading to a fatter bill.

Generally, electricity bills are issued between the 7th and 10th of a month. In May, a peak summer month, when the power consumption is the highest, the bills have been delayed.

Vijay Ragavan of Malkajgiri said, “The department has billed many consumers for 35- 36 days on the meter reading. In the existing system, the user is billed according to the units consumed which are further divided into slabs like 0-100 (units), 100-200 and 500 and above.  When we questioned the meter reading officer, he said there is new software incorporated in the system that calculates based on certain logic and it won’t impact the consumer. But, I have collected certain bills and found that due to the delay, each consumer is losing `1,000 `2,000 following the change in slab.”

He further added, “For example, for a person in my colony, his highest bill was `6,700 to 7,500, but this month it has come to `14,000. Based on our calculation, if the department counts 30 days and not 35, 36 days, there is a decrease of `1,500 and the units will not go beyond 500. We demand that for the following month, the department calculates for 30 days so that the slabs will reduce. Several resident welfare associations are planning to meet the director operation- electricity department and give a memorandum.”

Another consumer, B.T. Srinivas, said, “The meter reading officer explained that the new software incorporated for billing will read the average units consumed in a day and accordingly arrive at a slab, and there will be no excess billing to the consumers. But there have been complaints that the delay has led to excess billing.”

Pratik Surana from Rasoolpura added, “The bill reached me on 12th and I was billed for 32 days. Since I am not on the threshold, my slab remained the same.”

Director, SPDCL, T. Srinivas said, “The department will only calculate for 30 days. The excess will be added to the next month if exceeding 30 days. People who need an explanation can submit their bills and seek information at the billing centres.”