Immediate action being taken on complaints of wrong billing : Minister

Lucknow, Aug 9 (Bureau) Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister AK Sharma on Wednesday informed the legislative Assembly that the government is taking immediate action on complaints of incorrect billing in order to provide accurate electricity bills to the consumers. In a written reply to a question from Samajwadi Party (SP) member Mohammad Faheem during the question hour regarding incorrect electricity billing, Sharma said that consumers could now register complaints of incorrect bills on the official website of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), or through assistance from the nearest departmental office.

He said that random checking of the billing process is also being carried out from time to time, Arrangements have been made by the Sub-Divisional Officer and Executive Engineer’s office to rectify the wrong bills by taking prompt action upon receiving the wrong bills. The Minister said that the Energy Department has implemented a system where officials visit consumers’ premises and use an Android-based billing app to take meter readings and provide bills on the spot. He said that under this system, meter readings are downloaded using probes in downloadable meters, and bills are issued. ‘If probe-based billing is not feasible, meter readers manually input the meter readings and issue bills through the billing app. After bill issuance, consumers are also informed of the bill details via SMS, Sharma said. The Minister said that in collaboration with distribution companies (Discoms), a one percent random check of monthly billing is being carried out in the edited contracts with billing agencies. This checking is done by the supervisor of the billing agency and an additional one percent random checking is provisioned to be conducted by Discoms officials. To address the issue of error-free billing, the UPPCL is introducing several additional facilities.

Under this initiative, a provision has been made to halt billing for bills exceeding Rs 10,000 per kilowatt per month and bills exceeding Rs 100,000 per kilowatt in total bill amount through the billing system. In such cases, error-free bills are issued only after consideration of the bill by the concerned SDO or Executive Engineer (distribution). In response to another question related to smart meters, Sharma explained that smart meters are not generating bills for higher units. He said that smart meters calculate bills based on the actual energy consumption recorded in consumers’ electricity meters. The Minister also revealed that as of March 20, 2023, a total of 11.79 lakh smart meters have been installed in the state. From the inception of smart meter installation in June 2018 to March 20, 2023, a total of 72,846 complaints have been received related to smart meters, after which necessary changes were made to the meters. Among these modified meters, 52,250 were identified as faulty, and 4,431 meters were changed due to other technical reasons.