START MONTHLY BILLING OR FACE MUSIC, UT POWER DEPT TOLD

CHANDIGARH:The Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) has told the UT electricity department to start monthly billing and improve supply quality immediately, or face action.

Currently, more than 85% consumers (domestic and commercial) are being billed bimonthly in the city. A shift to monthly bills can help reduce the financial burden on the power consumers by around 20%, say department insiders.

“Depending on the consumption slabs, tariff increases for consumers. For instance, if a household consumes 200 units in a month, then under the bimonthly bill system he has to pay ₹806 for a month. But, under monthly billing, he would be charged ₹652,” said a department official requesting anonymity. For up to 150 units consumed, the consumer is charged at ₹2.75 per unit, and between 151-400 units, the rate is ₹4.80 per unit.

The JERC order comes in view of the department’s failure to implement monthly billing for all the categories except agriculture pumping supply, despite repeated directions of the commission.

The commission has told the department to submit the quarterly progress report on the matter to it.

The commission in its order observed that the department was continuously undertaking lower than expected capitalisation through the years. The department in 2019-20 has undertaken a capitalisation of ₹0.44 crore till September 2019 against ₹69.14 crore approved, pointing to failure to improve quality of supply.