On the 8th of June, Guntakandla Jagadish Reddy, the Energy Minister of Telangana, announced the allowance to pay electricity bills of the past three months in installments.
The installments would be divided in proportion of 30, 40 and 30 % for March, April and May. The decision to allow installment payment was taken after many complaints of high electricity bills. In regard to the situation of the consumers who would be unable to pay the electricity bill at once, the Energy Minister decided to allow installment payments at cash counters. However, consumers would not be able to pay the installment amounts through online.
Addressing a press meet on the evening of the 8th of June, Mr. Jagdish Reddy said, “Now the consumers can pay 30 per cent of the currently generated bill in June, 40 per cent of the bill in July and remaining 30 per cent in the month of August.”
He further said, “There are complaints about huge bills alleging that the government has gone back on its promise of taking (an) average of three months while calculating the slabs, resulting in huge bills.”
Speaking about the bills in the past 3 months, the Minister said, “Every bill has been generated by the computers at the TSSPDCL where the calculations are made even though it is generated by the man who comes to take the meter reading. He said that bills are looking hefty as the consumers have utilised the extra power while staying at home during the lockdown period. “Some bills were generated by treating the lockdown period as 90 and some as 92. There may be an issue of computers taking a decimal here and there but overall all, the bills are genuine, calculated by taking averages.”
The Minister also rubbished the complaints of the consumers regarding the hike in the bills and said the bill was generated after taking the monthly average of 782 units for three months.
He tried to explain and said usually in summers, the electricity bills increased by 30 to 40 % due to high consumption. Since the last 2 months were under the lockdown, the usage increased in the State, following which the bills also amounted more than expected.
The Nation was under the lockdown since the 24th of March and re opened partially under the Unlock 1.0., on the 8th of June. However, containment zones for the spread of the Novel Coronavirus are still under the lockdown 5.0., till the 30th of June.
Stay tuned for further updates.
