Inflated electricity bills hit citizens in Guwahati

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Inflated electricity bills generated by the Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd (APDCL) has aggravated woes of residents in the State's capital city already hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis and lockdown.

Jagadish Choudhury (name changed), a resident of Pub Sarania area said, "I was shocked to see the inflated electricity bill for this month. Even though I have rental accommodation in my complex, the majority of tenants (mostly students) have not been staying since the lockdown started in mid March. In normal situation, I had paid bills in between Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 during this part of the year. But I recently received a bill of Rs 15,000 for the month of July. I cannot believe this bill amount and some gross mistakes must have been committed by the APDCL."

Choudhury said that he has already lodged a complaint against the bill amount and made a plea to re-check the digital meter installed at his house. "So far the APDCL has not responded," he said.

Similar was the case with Saidul Hussain (name changed) at the Lakhtokia area. He received a bill of Rs 12,000 in June. Hussain was not convinced and immediately approached the higher-ups at APDCL. When the meter reader re-checked the digital meter at Hussain's house, it was found that an excess of 1,000 units of power as being consumed, was calculated in the bill. Mistakes were rectified and Hussain's bill amount came down to Rs 5,000.

Hussain was lucky. Since he had connections with the top brass of APDCL, his inflated bill issue was immediately rectified. But all electricity consumers are not fortunate as Hussain; and they are at a loss as how to pay such inflated bills. Most of the local sub division offices of APDCL are functioning with skeleton staffs to address the issue of inflated bills.

"There were instances in the past when the APDCL disconnected power supply after some customers refused to pay the inflated bills," Arup Das (name changed) of Lachit Nagar said.

Sources said that the APDCL has engaged to temporary meter readers to take note of power units consumed by different households and commercial establishments. Many of these meter readers are not trained to properly monitor digital and smart meters. "As a result, these meter readers commit mistakes while noting the power units consumed by different customers," the source said.

When contacted, a senior official at APDCL said that meter readers could not collect the meter readings for the last month in many areas of Guwahati due to the lockdown. "So we have generated the bills for July on estimated readings over the previous months," he pointed out.

The official further said that the APDCL has been constantly asking many consumers to change and upgrade their meters as their old ones do not provide the actual reading and the bills calculated are usually much less than the actual usage. "These consumers are being under-billed. For those people who have been constantly ignoring our pleas, we have charged them a bill inflated by 10 per cent," the official said. He, however, evaded a directly reply as to whether notices were issued to consumers to change their meters.

"We have also set up complaint desks at every sub-division office and Bijulee Bhawan at Paltan Bazar. So, aggrieved customers who feel their bills are inflated can get it corrected. Online complaints can be raised at 'feedback.apdcl@gmail.com' or 'support@apdcl.in", the official said.

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