WB power minister urges citizens not to pay exorbitant electricity bills until revised ones are issued

Kolkata: Sovan Deb Chatterjee, West Bengal energy minister, has requested shoppers in Kolkata and Howrah to not pay the exorbitant electrical energy payments till the personal energy utility points revised payments with a lowered quantity for June.

“I would suggest the consumers not to pay the exorbitant electricity bill amount. Officials of the private power utility told me that they would calculate the power consumption for June separately and issue revised bills that would work out to be much less,” mentioned Chatterjee after a gathering with the officers of the facility utility on Monday.

Chatterjee himself obtained an electrical energy invoice amounting to Rs 11,000 in June, which he claimed was exorbitant and irregular. Lakhs of shoppers in Kolkata and Howrah have complained of exorbitant energy payments. Some shoppers obtained electrical energy payments working into lakhs of rupees. The energy utility has drawn the harried shoppers’ flak and the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) authorities needed to intervene.

Officials of the personal energy utility, nevertheless, had mentioned that due to the nationwide lockdown restrictions, which had been enforced since March 25 to include the unfold of the coronavirus illness (Covid-19), bodily meter studying in lots of elements of Kolkata and Howrah, below its jurisdiction, couldn’t be executed.

“We had sent low provisional bills based on regulatory guidelines. We had taken into account the consumption of the last six months. The provisional amount was low because it included the winter months as well. The balance was adjusted in bills that made the amounts look high,” mentioned an official of the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC), which provides energy within the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah.

Chatterjee was not glad with the CESC’s clarification and had known as a gathering with the facility utility’s prime brass on Monday.

“They told me that they are not taking the pending amount for April and May. However, they are yet to make it clear, whether the pending dues will be billed later,” the minister added.