Electricity bills shock UAQ residents

umm al quwain — Residents of Umm Al Quwain (UAQ) have voiced their woes over the hefty electricity bills they received in August this year.

Some residents complained that electricity bills have jumped by 80 to 120 per cent. Electricity bills have never gone so high despite previous consumptions over the same summer months in the last years, they said.

Ibrahim Al Qasim, an Algerian resident at the Salma area, said he was shocked when he received the electricity bill for the month of August. “For the first time in my 10-year stay in the UAE, I had to pay Dh1,000 my electricity bill,” he said. “My average consumption never exceeded Dh500 to Dh600.”

Al Qasim thought there was something wrong and contacted the official concerned with the Federal Electricity and Water Authority (Fewa). “They said there was nothing wrong and that was my electricity consumption for the month of August.”

Reiterating the same, Adnan Abdul Basit, a Jordanian resident, said he had to pay Dh800 as his August electricity bill. “This is too much, I always pay a maximum of Dh400.”

When approached, Fewa affirmed the bills were correct and reflected people’s consumption in August, which was reported as “the highest in consumption over the years.”

Consumers are urged to rationalise their consumption, they said. Mohammed Saleh, director general of Fewa, attributed the reported hikes in the bills to the increased consumption during the summer months and urged people to be more aware of their consumption. “Records show that the electricity consumption in July was higher than June, and August was the highest.”

Official records show that Fewa electricity consumers hit 300,000, while water consumers amounted to 270,000.