Hyderabad: Power consumers hit as billing cycle not followed

Hyderabad: There seems to no end for the tug of war between power Discoms and its consumers over the monthly electricity bills. Till recently the consumers were in a shock after receiving cumulative inflated bills charged at higher slab for three months of March, April and May. Now they are again in a quandary with State Power Discoms presenting a bill for a 40-day cycle instead of the normal 30-day cycle. The result is many consumers fall into higher slabs and end up paying two to three times more than they used to pay earlier. This sudden change in billing cycle is attributed to the officials coming five-ten days beyond the stipulated time for reading electricity metres and issuing bills to the consumers.

Subsequently, the consumers are forced to pay higher charges as they fall into higher slab for consumption of power.

For example, the power tariff for domestic electricity is divided into various slabs. For the first 0-50 units, it is Rs 1.45 per unit, for 51-100 units Rs 2.60 per unit and for 101-200 units Rs 4.3 per unit. So, if a household consumed Rs 100 units in a month they have to pay Rs 260 and his consumption is 130 units in 40 days, then he has to pay Rs 559 which is more than twice the usual monthly electricity charges.

Many consumers not only expressed ire over the inflated bills due to the apathetic attitude of power officials, they leveled allegations of doing it on purpose to loot the people. "If the officials of the TSSPDCL worked on time and issued billings for appropriate days, such an issue would not have come up. To resolve the issue there is an immediate need for TSSPDCL authorities to rectify the issue by calculating power bills for a 30-day period," said Prasanna Prasad, Incharge, MMCC School, Yousufguda.

"Often the officials come late and issue bill which fall into higher slabs. They should take out an average and issue bill accordingly," said another customer Harsha Parvatam from Tarnaka.

Normally, the billing Must be done between the first and seventh of every month. But in several areas the consumers are not receiving their bills even by the third week of the month.

"Why should I pay for the fault of the electricity staff? There should be a system system and pattern which electricity billing officials should follow," said S Akash, Software Engineer, Mettuguda who received an electricity bill of Rs 1578, which is triple than usual.

"This is irresponsible behaviour by officials, my bill is generated for 33 days, they just want to increase the slab rates. Due to slab change, it is we who have to bear the excess charges," said Naresh Kodiganti.

AN EXAMPLE OF EXCESSES

For example, the power tariff for domestic electricity is divided into various slabs. For the first 0-50 units, it is Rs 1.45 per unit, for 51-100 units Rs 2.60 per unit and for 101-200 units Rs 4.3 per unit. So, if a household consumed Rs 100 units in a month they have to pay Rs 260 and his consumption is 130 units in 40 days, then he has to pay Rs 559 which is more than twice the usual monthly electricity charges