Government looting people with inflated power bills: Revanth Reddy

• For the past three months billing was not done due to coronavirus spread, says the Malkajgiri MP in a letter addressed to KCR

• But now in the month the government is charging the electricity bill at higher slab rate as the accumulated unit climbed during the past three months. Therefore, consumers are paying bill at much higher rate

Hyderabad: Congress MP A Revanth Reddy on Sunday alleged that the government has been casting heavy burden on the poor and middle-class people in the form of higher power bills.

In an open letter to the Chief Minister, he said that the latest power bills have been giving shocks to the common people. Determination slabs in calculating the bills for the usage of power in the past three months has become a cause of concern.

He said that as per the tariff order, domestic power charges have been calculated in seven slabs. Those use power between 0 to 45 units per month would be charged with Rs 1.45 per unit. Those use 800 units have been placed in the seventh slab and Rs 9.50 per unit is the rate. For the past three months billing was not done due to coronavirus spread. Bills have been given on the basis of usage in the corresponding period of previous year. Officials said that the bills would be adjusted after taking up the billing. However, as the reading is taken in June, the consumers are finding themselves in higher slabs. For example if a consumer who uses 100 units per month has to pay Rs 260 at the rate of Rs 2.60 per unit. But as the reading is taken for three months and he is billed for 300 units and he is placed in the higher slab where the unit cost would be Rs 7.20 per unit. With this, the bill has gone up to Rs 720 per month and total bill for three months reached to Rs 2,160. He said that this is nothing but looting the people and government should stop it immediately. The bills should be calculated on monthly basis and not on three months basis.

On the other hand, the government wants to charge 1.04 per cent interest on the payments in installments. However, it is a question whether the government pays the same interest to those who made advance payments. Revanth Reddy made it clear that they would oppose this and want the government to correct the mistakes. The Congress would not tolerate even if a single rupee burden is put on the people.