Chandigarh: Consumers’ demand for monthly power bills still a far cry

Despite directions from the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC), the long-standing demand of the city’s power consumers for monthly instead of bi-monthly billing is unlikely to be met any time soon.

Admitting to slow pace of the conversion, the UT electricity department, in its submission with JERC, has blamed staff shortage and software issues as major roadblocks. At present, more than 85% consumers (domestic and commercial) in Chandigarh are billed on bi-monthly basis.

“The conversion of meter reading from bi-monthly to monthly is slow due to acute shortage of staff. Further, the software also needs to be updated for monthly billing,” the department has submitted in its annual plan with the JERC.

For the conversion, the department will instead be depending on the installation of smart meters under the National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM), which is in progress. “The smart metering project will help for monthly billing of all categories of consumers,” stated the department.

JERC had last year warned of punitive action against the department for its failure to implement monthly billing for all categories except agriculture pumping supply, despite its repeated directions. The commission’s initial order on the shifting to monthly billing came in its tariff order of 2019.

In 2020, it had again directed the power department to implement it. In its 2020 order, JERC had suggested that the implementation of monthly billing be done in a phased manner, so that billing of certain number of consumers be shifted every month/quarter. The department was directed to submit monthly compliance reports to the commission for monitoring.

Due to bi-monthly billing, consumers are being forced to pay surcharges at 4% for the total bill, if they miss the last date for payment even by one day. “For the speedy recovery of dues, monthly billing must be started in the interest of revenue gain of the department and to reduce the defaulting amount,” JERC has observed last year.

Hitesh Puri, chairman, Chandigarh Residents’ Association Welfare Federation (CRAWFED), said, “We have been demanding monthly billing for a long time. For starters, bi-monthly billing impacts in which slab the electricity consumption of a house comes under. Secondly, for consumers, it is financially much easier to pay monthly bills. This is particularly the case for summer months, when consumption is at its peak.”

In their representation to the JERC, consumers have contended, “If commission wants to retain the bimonthly billing, surcharge due to late payment should be taken 2% per cycle instead of per month and the interest rate on the principal amount should not exceed the bank rate, as presently, 24% surcharges are being charged yearly.”