Dismissing reports in a section of media that stated that GESCOM (Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company) had issued inflated bills for two months in the month of May, the State-owned company up with a clarification that the bills were prepared on the basis of physical meter-reading done in May and proportionate apportioning of the relevant slab rates as per the actual consumption recorded in the meter for the last two months.
According to the statement issued by the GESCOM on Wednesday, the company had not conducted physical meter-reading in April thanks to COVID-19 lockdown, but issued the bills on average basis taking the previous bill of the consumer into account. When the actual meter reading was done in May, the actual consumption of power by a consumer in the last two months was taken into consideration to prepare the two-month bills and the payment made by the consumers for average bill of April was adjusted in the May bill.
The company attributed the inflation in bills to the increased consumption of power by the consumers who were at home and worked from home during the lockdown using air-cooling equipments to beat the summer heat.
“Due to door-lock, seal-down and quarantine of some premises of the consumer’s installations, meters were not accessible for physical meter reading and, hence, the bills were issued on average basis as per the norms. If consumers feel that their bills are on the higher side, they can facilitate a second round of meter reading by meter readers or they can furnish the self-reading through SMS/WhatsApp to the sub-division office or to dial 24x7 helpline number 1912 to obtain revised bills as per the actual consumption,” the Chief Engineer (operations) of GESCOM, said in the statement.
He has further clarified that there would be no disconnection of power supply for non-payment of electricity bills due to COVID-19 lockdown as per the government order.
