Tirupati: SPDCL consumers complain of abnormal hike in power bills

Tirupati: Common people are in shock with abnormal April month power bills during the lockdown period. Across the State the same situation was continuing. As far as Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (APSPDCL) is concerned, consumers are complaining that they were receiving abnormally high bills.

It may be noted that during the lockdown period, the SPDCL authorities had stopped to take meter reading as per the Government of India guidelines. And officials announced that March month power usage units will be taken into consideration for April billing and asked consumers to pay electricity bills as per previous electricity units usage.

Now consumers wonder why the electricity bills were suddenly being hiked in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 3,000 and above. In a few cases, the bills were raised even up to Rs 28,000. Electricity consumers are expressing concern over severe hike in power tariff. For example, one consumer M Guraviaiah who is doing flower business on pavement has received power bill of Rs 28,770 for the month of April.

On receiving the abnormal bill from SPDCL, Guraviaiah expressed shock and wondered how to pay the huge amount. He resides in SC Colony at Vallivedu village in Srikalahasti mandal. Moreover he has been spending most of the time from morning to night at his business place Srikalahasti bus stand. He and his family use power during nights only. This is only one example, in fact many billing errors were found during the last two months. While SPDCL officials claim that they were collecting electricity charges based on average units consumption, consumers complain that they received faulty bills of April in the first week of May across six districts under the purview of SPDCL.

In Tirupati city, for every three consumers, one consumer had received bills with abnormal hike. Speaking to The Hans India, a consumer Mohan Rao pointed out that the earlier bill that he had paid was Rs 360, but the bill for April that he received was Rs 3,044. "Due to corona fear we did not use AC and we don't know the reason of sudden increase in electricity bill," he said.

Responding to the complaints, the electricity officials said that if anyone had doubts over latest electricity bills, they may contact officials concerned in their respective SPDCL sub-stations or they can contact the department through the toll free number.