Slapped with inflated electricity bills, consumers in the Capital have accused the power distribution company BSES of fudging data to run up higher bills.
“Residents’ welfare associations and power consumers in the Capital are shocked by the highly inflated power bills received from private power distribution companies (mostly in BSES areas in East Delhi and South Delhi),” said Rajiv Kakria of the Greater Kailash-I RWA.
Residents are not convinced by the arguments put forth by the company that a rise in temperature led to the sharp rise in consumption, which in turn resulted in higher bills. “The increase (in bill amount) is steep and this when there were frequent and prolonged power cuts. We need to assess consumption patterns over the years and compare with the current usage,” said Mr. Kakria.
Consumers are also peeved that their concerns about the reliability of electronic meters went unheeded. “We already pay high power bills since the installation of new meters, now it’s the burden of tariff hike. When we do not have the choice to change our power distributor, what is the use of privatisation?” asked Mr. Kakria.
Consumers are not even convinced by the contention that the rise in bill amount has also been on account of the Delhi Government withdrawing the subsidy.
“My average bill for non-summer months every year was about Rs.2,000 and peak summer bill has been about Rs.4,000 for the past ten years. This summer has turned out to be most shocking and I have got a bill for Rs.5,771. The consumption pattern has been more or less the same,” complained V.K. Arora, a resident of Kiran Vihar.
Residents want a public audit of the earnings of the discoms and have demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the privatisation details.
