PANAJI
In a bizarre case which hints at chaos around Goa’s computerised electricity billing, a consumer from Cujira, St Cruz was slapped with three bills on the same day, all generated within half an hour.
The domestic connection of Nilesh Mudras, already fitted with a smart meter, inexplicably produced three separate bills dated August 17.
One carried proper “current” and “previous” readings but the other two had no readings at all and computed instead on “average consumption.”
To add to the confusion, the billing cycles overlapped in the same July-August period.
Mudras told The Goan he has taken up the issue with the department, which has promised to rectify the anomaly.
A senior official admitted knowledge of the case but could not explain why a smart meter fitted connection experienced such a glitch.
The case comes amidst mounting complaints by consumers across the State of unusually high billing for power consumption.
Domestic consumers have repeatedly alleged steep charges despite government assurances of relief over recent weeks.
In the case of a consumer from Margao, the connection of his two-bedroom rented flat was slapped a bill of Rs 11,000 for May and Rs 7,000 for June, nearly three times his bills of the past months.
“I paid these bills under protest,” he said.
There have been multiple such instances where households have begun receiving bills which are more than double of the amounts of previous months' bills.
The State government had in November last year notified a 5.9 per cent tariff hike approved by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission and gave it effect from January 1 this year.
While the tariff hike in itself was modest on paper, gross billing for many households has spiked by over 100 per cent, largely due to a tweak in consumption slabs.
The latest wave of complaints of high billing has prompted Power Minister Sudin Dhavlikar to step in and advise consumers to report the cases of excessive billing to electricity department offices in their jurisdiction for verification.
