Minister for Energy G. Jagadish Reddy has assured the domestic power consumers in the State that discrepancies, if any, in their bills raised electronically this month in the absence of details of exact consumption details would be settled once the discom staff resumes physical data collection on the energy consumption.
He gave the clarity in the backdrop of some consumers raising complaints that the bills raised in the website of the discoms was not exactly the same as that of March last year, as indicated by them earlier this month. The Minister held a review meeting on the power supply position and revenue collection in the State with Special Chief Secretary (Energy) Ajay Misra, Chairman and Managing Director of TS-Transco and TS-Genco D. Prabhakar Rao and CMD of Southern Discom G. Raghuma Reddy here on Monday.
The Minister complimented the staff of power utilities for ensuring uninterrupted supply to all categories of consumers even in the wake of adverse conditions of coronavirus spread care by taking necessary health safety measures. Irrespective of the untimely rains in several parts of the State during the last few days there was no shortage of rolling stock of distribution transformers for timely replacement in the event of their damage or repairs.
ERC direction
On the domestic power bills for April, for the energy consumed during the month of March, the Minister said Telangana too was following the system being followed by several other States and the discoms has devised the method as directed by the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC). He, however, stated that energy consumption during March 2020 had increased at least by 20% in the wake of lockdown measures due to which most of the employees and other wage earners were restricted to remain at home, but the bills raised electronically were in tune with the ERC directions.
The actual consumption charges would be collected only after taking the data of energy consumption physically when the lockdown restrictions were lifted by the government. Most of the consumers in the Southern Discom would generally pay their bills online regularly and the other consumers too would be required through online payment systems in place, he noted.
Commercial bills
On the bills of commercial category consumers, the Minister said actual data of energy consumption by 10,700 consumers (business organisations) was taken physically by the staff concerned and the bills were issued to them. The remaining commercial consumers would have to pay 50% of their bill amount of March 2019, the Minister said and if there was any excess payment, it would be adjusted in the next bill.
The revenue demand for low-tension (LT) category this month, April for March, was ₹620 crore in Southern Discom and it was ₹203 crore in Northern Discom.
