As a part of the decision of the Central Government to conduct Unlock 1.0, the electricity bill companies have finally been able to take readings and have been sending bills on the basis of meter readings.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier announced a nation-wide lockdown across the country. The lockdown has had a huge impact on the business and the daily wage labourers. Simultaneously, the electricity bill companies which have been unable to take the readings. However, there have been multiple complaints about the electricity bill being too high. Several people have been unable to file the bill and have also complained to the government about the same.
Nitin Rawat, the Energy Minister of the government, while talking to a media channel has recently said that the MERC fixes the rates of electricity bill and the bills that have been sent are based on the usage of last 3 months. Raut has further added that in the summer months, people have consumed more electricity than normal. Adding to that, as people were in their homes during the lockdown, people have consumed more electricity than usual. The government is, however, trying to reduce problems for the people and the payment of bills in instalments is being considered.
In the past, several consumers of Tata Power, Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML), the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking, and the State-run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Corporation Limited (MSEDCL), took to social media demanding an answer for the exorbitant amounts. In some cases, the bills were for more than ₹10,000. The city of Mumbai has nearly 32 lakh residential power consumers and around eight lakh commercial consumers.
However, the power companies have retaliated stating that the high electricity bills are mostly because power utilities have been able to check meter readings in June after over two months. Meter readings had been discontinued since March 22, according to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) directive. Instead, during the lockdown, the people were billed based on their average consumption of December, January and February.