No more meter rent to be charged in UT
No more meter rent will be charged by the UT Electricity Department from all categories of power consumers in the city.
On a complaint filed by SK Nayar, president, Indian Citizen’s Forum (ICF), the Consumers Grievances Redressal Forum (CGRF) has directed the UT Electricity Department to refund the excess amount of meter rental charged from all electricity consumers of the city with effect from April 1, 2023.
Nayar had submitted that “in the tariff order for 2023-24, effective from April 1, 2023, the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) has not approved these rentals and further in the tariff order for 2024-25 issued on July 25, 2024, no such rentals were approved. But, the UT Electricity Department is collecting rentals continuously in violation of these tariff orders.”
Seven consumers, Charanjeet Singh (two complaints), Tarlochan Singh, Chaman Lal, Komal Kumar, Satish Kumar and Ganga Prashad had submitted individual complaints to the office of SDO, Electricity, Mani Majra, seeking refund of their wrongly charged meter rental. They also sent the copies of their complaints to the ICF for taking up the matter with the authorities concerned.
The matter was taken with the SDO by Narinder Sharma, secretary of the forum, but the grievance was not resolved.
Nayar, along with Sharma, appeared before the forum and requested that meter rental with effect from April 1, 2023, may be refunded to all electricity consumers of Chandigarh and compensation be paid to the seven complainants. The XEN, Electricity, UK Patel, along with Pankaj Gautam, SDO, appeared before the forum on behalf of the department.
The forum observed that the meter rent had been abolished by the JERC vide its tariff order dated March 30, 2023, and it was surprising that the department had not taken any action to modify its software of computerised billing system to stop charging of meter rental in compliance with the tariff order for 2023-24 applicable since April 1, 2023.
It directed the department to refund the amount of meter rental charged from all electricity consumers of Chandigarh since April 1, 2023, along with interest at the SBI rate as on April 1 for the current year, payable annually, and rectify their electricity bill/account accordingly within 30 days from the issue of this final order. The department was also directed to pay Rs 100 per day to the seven complainants as compensation.
2.47 lakh power consumers in city
The city has nearly 2.47 lakh power consumers, of whom 2.14 lakh fall in the domestic category. The department charges monthly rent if the meter is installed by it. The domestic consumers have to pay monthly meter rent in the range of Rs 20-50, while the consumers of other categories pay from Rs 50 to Rs 200. The rent is levied on the basis of stationed power load.
