Switch over to monthly billing fast, says JERC

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 2

The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) has directed the UT Electricity Department to speed up the process of switching over to the monthly billing cycle.

During a public hearing held on February 12, the stakeholders — Gp Capt RC Goyal (retd), SK Nayar, president, and Narinder Sharma, secretary, of the Indian Citizens’ Forum — submitted that according to the directives of the commission in the tariff order, dated May 19, 2020, the Electricity Department had not started generating monthly bills, citing a delay in the conversion of meter reading from bimonthly to a monthly basis due to a shortage of staff. They said the reply of the department was not satisfactory.

Hence, strict action for compliance with the directives was required by the commission. “Due to the bimonthly billing, consumers are forced to pay surcharge at 4 per cent for the total bill if they miss out on paying the bill even by a day. The department comes to know about the non-payment after four months,” they said.

“If the commission wants to retain the bimonthly billing, surcharge on late payment should be taken at 2 per cent per cycle instead of per month, the interest rate on the principal amount should exceed the bank rate as at present, 24 per cent surcharge is being charged yearly,” they stated.

In response, the department submitted that at present, over 85 per cent consumers (domestic and commercial) are billed bimonthly. “The conversion of meter reading from bimonthly to a monthly basis will lead to various problems as there is an acute shortage of staff. Further, the software will also need to be upgraded for monthly billing,” said the department.

Meanwhile, the work on installation of smart meters under the National Smart Grid Mission is in progress, which will help support monthly billing for all categories of consumers, including domestic and commercial, said the department.

However, the commission directed the department to expedite the process and submit the progress report in a month.