·Electricity bills for June were full of errors, alleges Uttam
·Congress to hold protest against inflated power bills on July 6
·Uttam asks CM KCR to help MSMEs revive their businesses
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Hyderabad, July 5 (Hydnow): Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & Nalgonda MP Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Sunday demanded that the State Government waive off the electricity bills for the entire lockdown period for BPL families and SMEs. He also demanded appropriate reduction in bill amount for other consumers.
“We request you to kindly announce 100% waiver of electricity bills for the lockdown period for the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. While the power bills of all White Ration Card holders should be waived off completely, the bill amount for others should be reduced appropriately by rectifying all the mistakes in the billing method. Similarly, the power bills, including fixed, minimum and regular charges, of all Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) should also be waived off by 100% for the lockdown as they could not carry out any commercial activity during the lockdown period,” Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded in an open letter to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Sunday.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the electricity bills given to consumers in the month of June were highly unjustified. They were not only inflated and exorbitant, but were prepared in an erroneous manner. Of 95 lakh power consumers in Telangana, nearly 75 lakh are in the domestic category and almost 80% of them consume below 200 units per month.
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They are primarily divided in three categories based on their consumption. While 0-100 units fall in Category-1; 100-200 units are in Category II and 200 units and above fall into Category – III. The tariff per unit is based on consumption and Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) has approved the tariff for monthly basis. However, in violation of TSERC guidelines, the TSSPDCL has generated bills based on overall consumption done in 90 days. Consequently, the consumers have been asked to pay Rs. 9 per unit instead of regular Rs. 4.3 per unit due to change in category based on total number of units consumed in 90-day period, he said.
He demanded that the State Government shift to the telescopic method of billing instead of continuing with the present non-telescopic method.
“The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has been causing devastation across the world, including Telangana. All sections of the society were badly affected in one way or other due to Coronavirus or due to the lockdown imposed by the government to prevent the spread of deadly virus. Life has completely changed for each and every individual and today we are living in circumstances which occur once in a century. Therefore, the governments across the world have been changing their priorities so as to help their citizens,” the TPCC Chief said in the letter.
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Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed deep regret that the Government of Telangana appeared to be in no mood to change its approach towards citizens. “No measures are being taken to ease out the burden from people who were affected due to prolonged lockdown for a period of over two months. Crores of people were affected, lakhs of people have lost their jobs and thousands are on the verge of facing starvation-like situations. Every single individual, family, institution, commercial firm, private business houses and industries are still under the negative impact of lockdown,” he said.
“The State Government cannot deny the fact that it has failed to prevent the spread of Coronavirus during the last three months. The norm ‘Trace, Test & Treat’ called by the World Health Organisation (WHO) was not implemented in letter and spirit and therefore, today we witnessed a record number of new cases every day. At one side, the State Government failed to contain the Covid-19. On the other, it is trying to put additional financial burden on the common people,” he said.
The TPCC chief alleged that despite lakhs of consumers raising complaints about errors in their electricity bills, neither the TSSPDCL nor the Energy Department took any corrective measures. Instead, the consumers were threatened with disconnection if they didn’t pay the inflated and wrong bills on time. He said no complaints were entertained and the objections raised by the Congress and other opposition parties were completely ignored. Even today, he said a majority of consumers did not pay the bills served to them last. “In the present circumstances, not many of them will be able to clear the dues even if they are given an option of paying instalment as most of them have lost their sources of livelihood,” he said.
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The TPCC Chief said a majority of MSMEs were yet to restore their activities due to lack funds, demand and other factors. Ideally, he said that the State Government should have conducted a study on the impact of lockdown on the business, especially the MSME sector and should’ve announced a relief package. “The Congress party request the government to provide some relief to the MSMEs by waiving off their electricity bills for the lockdown period,” he said.
Uttam Kumar Reddy informed that the Congress party would organise a protest across Telangana State on July 6 with black flags and badges against the inflated electricity bills and to demand waiver of power bills for the poor for the lockdown period. (Hydnow)