Facing flak from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and various civil societies, Delhi’s power regulator has now decided to audit the billing systems of the three distribution companies in the Capital. The move is significant as the discoms generate almost 100 per cent of their revenue through the bills paid by the consumers.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) is going to appoint consultants for the purpose and they will be given three months to file their reports. The audit will be carried out for the current operational electricity billing system for the period commencing from April 1, 2014 up to June 30, 2015.
The audit, according to the Commission, will bring out discrepancies, lapses or deficiencies in the metering and billing systems of the three power discoms – BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL), BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL).
It is neither a part of the annual tariff revision, nor that of the ongoing CAG audit, clarified PD Sudhakar, Chairperson, DERC. “The audit is going to cover four general categories all of which have several sub-parts – billing and metering system, post billing activity, activities related to collection, regulatory reports and verification of corrective actions,” he added. The power regulator has already issued limited tenders for the same and will only appoint auditors empanelled with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Under the billing and metering system, the consultant will work on the exact break-up of the number of consumers who have metered and unmetered electricity connection. The audit would also look into the number of faulty meters, whether meter reading for all the consumers is being entered into the billing system on a fixed interval and so on. Processing of bills which would include finding the efficacy and correctness of metering and billing system in respect of various elements of billing will also be audited.
Activities related to collection of revenues would involve scrutinising if there is any over collection against particular bills or whether the collection is being credited against specific bills. Even the centres of collections of revenues like own account, internet, mobile payment, designated drop banks, etc, would be identified.
Surprisingly, last such audit was carried out by the power regulator over four years ago. Power experts, however, have suggested that audit of the discoms’ billing systems should be done every year simultaneously along with the Commission’s prudence check during the annual tariff revision.
