Told to cough up double in electricity bills for May.
Mumbai : After leaving bus commuters fretting over its fare hike, the BEST has added to the misery of electricity consumers by thrusting on them inflated bills of nearly double the amount justified for consumption in the month of May.
Nearly 2.5 lakh electricity consumers were asked to shell out an amount that was double their average monthly outgo. The rip-off came to light after bewildered consumers complained to ward offices against the inflated bills, while some others approached the committee members with their grievances.
BEST, which gets it electricity bills generated from a private operator KJL, has been facing several ‘technical glitches’ over the last couple of years. The company’s server crashed last month for the second time, which left BEST with no other option but to generate the bills in house.
However, instead of showing an amount that tallies with their actual consumption, users were saddled with an inflated figure.
An official from BEST said, “The in house data technology used by the BEST is Cobalt system, wherein the bill amount got doubled.”
Committee Member Ravi Raja, who brought the issue of excessive bills before the management, said, “Thousands of these consumers approached us as in the case of some of them the inflated amounts were automatically deducted from their accounts. Consumers, whose average bill is close to Rs 2,500, were made to cough up Rs 5,000 and above, which severely affected their monthly budget.”
After the committee members approached the management, the BEST, as a corrective measure, asked the consumers to pay 50 percent of the amount computed on their electricity bills. For those who have already paid, the extra amount would be balanced in the bills for the coming month.
Dipti Birwadkar, a resident of Mumbai Central, said, “My monthly bill has been close to Rs 700 but in May it shot up to Rs 3000, which is just not possible. The employees of the customer care cell are not even aware of the problem in their system and simply acknowledge the complaint without any explanation.”
Another resident of Lal Baug, Kishor Shirke, said, “My bill pitch forked to Rs 6,500 from an average of Rs 1,000. It seemed as if BEST officials simply put up whimsical figures. On a tight monthly budget it is very difficult to make an allowance for such additional expenses; and now they expect us to pay the entire amount and get it adjusted in the coming months. The BEST management should look at things from a common man’s perspective.”
Even officials living in government colonies like the railways were not spared. An official from the Central Railway, whose average bill is close to Rs 4000, was asked to fork out Rs 10,000.
