The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) on Thursday asked that consumers be refunded the extra money they had been charged by the Electricity Department for bills from August 1, 2016. While slamming the government for the high electricity tariffs in the state, claiming that there was corruption involved in issuing the electricity bills late to consumers, and that it was done in a calculated manner, the GPCC also asked that the malpractice of late billing be stopped at once.
The GPCC submitted a letter in this regard to the Chief Minister, the Chief Secretary, and the Chief Electrical Engineer on Thursday.
In the letter, signed by North Goa District President Vijay Bhike and member of the Youth Congress Nikhil Narvekar, it was demanded that the person sent to read the meter of consumers be sent on the bill date, and that there should not be a difference in 'issue date' and 'bill date.' The two alleged that the discrepancy led to consumers being charged more for no fault of their own.
The letter also gave an example, which Narvekar elaborated upon. It said that if a consumer was supposed to be billed on the 2nd of the month, but the bill was issued on the 8th, the consumer was being billed for 6 days more, at a higher slab. This led to a huge profit for the department, as billing was done slab wise.
For eg, for 1 to 100 units, consumers were charged Rs 1.40 per unit, for the next 100 units till 200, the charges went up to Rs 2.10 per unit and so on. If the consumer was billed 6 days after the bill due date, he was paying higher unit charges, as opposed to if he was billed afresh from the 3rd of the month.
"If the actual charge is Rs 449 for 264 units, the consumer is paying Rs 607 extra because he's paying for a higher slab rate," explained Narvekar.
The GPCC termed this "a huge loot of the consumers by the department" and a "malpractice perpetrated intentionally to cheat and rob the money of the public."
Bhike also pointed out that this led to extra revenue being earned for the Electricity Department which went unaccounted for.
"Who knows where this extra revenue is going?" he questioned.
