Minister said in the assembly – Government is taking immediate action on wrong billing
Lucknow (IANS). The Government of Uttar Pradesh is committed to provide correct electricity bill to the consumers. Action is being taken with immediate effect on the complaint of wrong billing. Along with this, random checking of the billing process is also being done from time to time.
On Wednesday, information was given by the government on the questions raised by the members regarding electricity meter billing in the Vidhansabha.
It was told that for the convenience of the consumers, Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd. (UPPCL)’s official website to register complaints about wrong bills automatically or with the help of the nearest departmental office.
On receipt of the complaint of wrong bill, the Sub-Divisional Officer/Executive Engineer’s office has made arrangements to correct the wrong bills by taking prompt action.
Energy Minister AK Sharma gave written information on the question of wrong billing in the Vidhansabha. He informed that the Energy Department has implemented a system to go to the premises of the consumers and take meter readings through the Android based billing app and make the bill available to the consumers at their premises itself.
Under this, bills are being issued by downloading meter readings through probes in downloadable meters. If probe based billing is not done, the bill is issued from the billing app by automatically marking the reading of the meter by the meter reader.
After the bill is issued to the consumer, the bill information is also given through SMS.
Along with this, provision has been made for 1 percent random checking of the billing being done in the month by the supervisor of the billing agency and 1 percent random checking additionally by the officers of the DISCOMs in the contract edited by the DISCOMs with the billing agencies.
UPCL is providing many more facilities to issue error free bills to the consumer. Under this, there is a provision to stop the bills on the billing system for more than Rs.10000 per kW per month and total bill amount of more than Rs.100000 per kW.
In such cases error free bills are issued only after consideration of the bill by the concerned Sub Divisional Officer/Executive Engineer (Distribution). Apart from this, the plan to replace the existing meters with prepaid smart meters under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) is in the works, which will solve the problem of wrong billing.
In response to another question, the Energy Minister said that smart meters are not generating bills for more units. The electricity bill of smart meter consumers is generated on the basis of actual energy consumption recorded in the meter.
So far, out of total 1005 complaints received by smart meter consumers about speedy running of smart meters, 961 smart meters were found to be correct after investigation and only 44 smart meters were changed immediately when they were found to be running fast.
If the consumer doubts the reading being recorded in the installed smart meter, the installed smart meter is checked by installing a check meter on the request of the consumer. In case of any deficiency, the meter is replaced with a new meter within 15 days and the bill of three months prior to the month in which the complaint is received is adjusted in the post-operative bill as per the final result.
He informed that till March 20, 2023, 11.79 lakh smart meters have been installed in the state. From the beginning of smart meter installation in June, 2018 till 20 March 2023, a total of 72846 complaints related to smart meters have been received, after which the meters were changed.
Out of these converted meters, 52250 smart meters were changed due to malfunction and 4431 meters due to other technical reasons.
