After recent incidents of consumers getting electricity bills running into crores of rupees, Haryana's power distribution agency on Wednesday cautioned officers to ensure accuracy in the bills.
Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, Managing Director, Nitin Yadav on Wednesday gave directions to the officers in all operation circles to ensure that bills issued to the consumers are checked properly at their level.
The directions come after the latest incident of a tyre repair shop owner in Faridabad, who was issued a bill of over Rs 77.89 crore.
Yadav said that in order to give relief to its consumers with accuracy in their billing system, the concerned SDO operation would be personally responsible that the bills are issued as per the code and in compliance to the revised tariff imposed by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Further, to bring more accuracy in the billing the concerned SDO/ JE/ Commercial Assistant /UDC Revenue /lDC would verify the correctness in the billing in a time bound manner before final printing and would inform the billing agency otherwise strict action would be taken against the responsible officer/official, said he.
The Nigam has also put in place “Special Electricity Bills Counters” in all its operation circles to resolve any complaints regarding their bills.
Notably, the owner of Surinder Auto Works in Faridabad town, adjoining New Delhi, had received a bill of Rs77.89 crore. The bill, dated October 31, was issued by the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN). The Nigam had later suspended three officers for issuing inflated erroneous bill of about Rs77 crore to the consumer.
The Nigam had also issued clear directions that the pre-audit of bills is important before issuing bill to consumers in which any error in bill could be rectified before it is issued.
This is not the first instance in Haryana that a consumer has been given a huge bill.
A pan-seller (betel-leaf seller) in Haryana's Gohana town in Sonipat district got a bill of Rs132 crore in October last year. Earlier, an electricity consumer in Haryana's Narnaul town got a bill of Rs234 crore in April 2007.