FARMERS WHO PAID BILLS ‘ON ASSUMED USE’ TO GET REFUND

LUCKNOW: The UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) has decided to refund the money to farmers, which was charged on the basis of normative (assumed) electricity consumption instead of tariff applicable to unmetered private tube wells.

The money will be refunded in their next electricity bills.

UPPCL managing director, Aparna Upadhyaya, on Saturday issued instructions to all the discoms asking them to charge electricity bills strictly as per the tariff order and adjust the excess amount charged in the name of normative billing in next bills to be issued to consumers.

She told discoms to revise all the bills raised on the basis of normative consumption and adjust the excess money charged from farmers in their next bills. She also asked them to make necessary changes in the billing software.

The move may come as a big relief to thousands of farmers owning unmetered tube wells. The discoms had been for more than a year charging unmetered tube wells for 80 units per HP though as per the tariff order issued by the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) such consumers were supposed to pay a fixed amount of ₹160 per HP.

“This means a farmer who had a 5 HP unmetered tube well connection was being charged ₹3097 per month assuming that he consumed 80 units per HP while as per the tariff order they were liable to pay only ₹834 a month,” UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad president, Awadheh Kumar Verma said. He was also a member of the UPERC committee that had probed the complaints about normative billing.