Telangana: Shocked by inflated power bills, netizens complain to KTR

Hyderabad: Upset with the inflated electricity bills, netizens complained to the IT and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao, who in turn assured to take up the matter with the Energy Minister and officials of Discoms.

A Twitter user Abhishek Pandey complained to Minister that he had received higher electricity bills even when they had paid the bills till May. "The consolidated bill accounts for 90 days and a lot of people have received such kind of bills. Kindly look into this," said Abhishek Pandey.

Replying to Abhishek, the MAUD Minister said, "Have received several complaints on the issue of electricity bills in last couple of days. Will take up the matter with Energy Minister Jagadish Reddy Garu and his team of officials at the Discoms."

One of the users, Mohd Abdul Navaz, said that he used to get the bill of Rs 400 to Rs 500 per month and but he received a bill of Rs 4,500. "This is unfair please take action," said Navaz. Another user Ch Naresh said that his was a poor family and charging such a bill would take away respect towards KCR's government hence wanted the Minister to look into the issue as he got Rs 2,416 bill.

A page named Hyderabad Intellectuals Forum said, "they came up with a great logic of charging same as March 2019 for month of March 2020 as meter readers non available due to corona pandemic. They said, "seriously wonder who gets these weird ideas. By the way, when govt warns owners from collecting rents, why can't government defer bill payments by six months?" Prasad Baru, said "Sir, we paid Rs 4,615 in April and 6,578 in May. We are only two senior citizens, I wonder what is in store for May after Rs 10,000 for two months There is no mechanism to take up explain and correct Pl look into the matter."

The TSSPDCL also replied to some users on the complaint of inflated bills. "We regret for inconvenience caused, kindly contact your area AAO/ERO, (or) AE/OP numbers which are mentioned on your electricity bill, during office hours (or) mail us at customerservice@tssouthernpower.com, For bill related queries."

However, the users seem to be unhappy with response by the TSSPDCL as they said that the TSSPDCL has failed to explain the people on the way electricity bills were calculated. They only provided email address and ERO AE phone number. That's it.

There were some who supported the high bills, one of the users Sujith said, "I don't think the electricity bills are generated wrongly. Due to lockdown effect and being at home all the time, the consumption has gone up. Even I felt the same, when the bill has been generated. I checked it thoroughly, it was right."