Allow consumers to assess power consumption: NGO

CHENNAI: Days after Tangedco asked the domestic consumers whose electricity usage could not be assessed to pay the same bill amount of May 2019 (pre-COVID times), Citizen’s Contribution in Democracy, an NGO, urged the utility to accept self-assessment by the consumers which would reflect the actual consumption and avoid unnecessary burden on them.

“It will be unacceptable to force those consumers whose electricity usage is less to pay higher charges based on the previous year’s electricity usage during this extraordinary situation. The correct approach would be to accept self-assessment done by the consumers and payment of the electricity charges based on that,” said Citizen’s Contribution in Democracy founder S Neelakanta Pillai in a letter to the Chief Minister.

During the last year’s lockdown, the Tangedco adopted the previous bi-monthly billing but it becomes a major issue when the actual reading was taken in the subsequent summer period and resulting in huge bills. To avoid such controversies, the utility has asked the consumers to pay the charges based on the corresponding billing period during the pre-COVID 2019.

“In an extraordinary situation when the management comes to a standstill, it would be wise to accept the self-assessment done by the consumers to collect electricity charges rather than putting them into hardship. It is disappointing that the management had overlooked the fact that commercial and industrial consumers self-assessment was accepted last year. The domestic consumers should be allowed to take self-assessment and pay the actual charges accordingly,” he demanded.