Inflated power bills, faulty meter reading leave consumers fuming in Haryana

GURGAON: Neelam Khanna was perplexed when she received an electricity bill for January and February, amounting to Rs 35,623. It was impossible, the DLF-2 resident thought. Not because the household couldn't have consumed as much power in January, when winter was still around, but because their home mostly runs on solar energy from the panels they had installed in October 2019."I had installed solar panels with a capacity of 20kW and we don't usually consume a lot of electricity from the discom. Plus, power usage is normally lower in January and February. Still, the DHBVN bill said that we had used up around 9,000 units in that time," she told TOI.Like any consumer, the doctor raised the issue of an inflated bill with Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), but says she got no help to tackle the problem."I had no option but to pay the amount. Otherwise, they would have imposed a penalty for delayed payment. So I did on April 5. I didn't get any DHBVN bills between October 2019 and September 2022. After that, they sent me Rs 8,000-Rs 9,000 bills monthly till December last year, and suddenly it shot up in January and February 2023," Khanna says."A DHBVN official had assured me that the discom will look into the matter, but no one has turned up till date," she adds.Hers isn't the only such case.Kishore Kumar Chabbra, a resident of Sector 31, says he has been getting inflated bills for a single-phase commercial connection repeatedly since September 2020 due to a mix-up in the reading of the meter. He says he has paid more than Rs 3.75 lakh over time as the discom has disconnected supply to both the domestic and commercial connections, leading to "financial loss and mental harassment"."I have two connections - a domestic one that has a higher load capacity than the commercial one. But they have interchanged both meter numbers installed outside his home three years ago. They levied an additional Rs 70,000 between 2020 and 2022. After a complaint with CGRF, they admitted that the billing amount was higher than it should have been, but the discom didn't implement the consumer forum's order of adjusting the extra amount in the bill. Now, my commercial connection bill is being generated on an average amount without taking a meter reading," he says.TOI has reviewed a copy of Chabbra's bills, complaint letters and the forum's order.The discom was also pulled up by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) last year for mistakenly billing a resident of DLF-2 area Rs 19.2 lakh in a month. The regulator had asked DHBVN to take action against its officials, noting that such mistakes cause "unnecessary harassment" to consumers.The discom has a detailed redress mechanism, but consumers say officials aren't responsive even after they have filed the complaints. A consumer can raise a complaint on DHBVN's website (https://ecgrs.dhbvn.org.in/). It is supposed to be registered at the commercial back office (CBO) and directed to the concerned sub-division within 24 hours. Subsequently, the sub-divisional officer has to depute staff for site verification and based on the official's finding, the SDO should advise for or against bill revision to the CBO.Further, the consumer's billing history is checked and a team audits the consumption pattern. Finally, the application will approve or reject any revisions to be made in the bill. The entire process is supposed to be completed in 15 working days, but it can be extended up to one month. If the SDO doesn't act, the complaint can be escalated to the executive engineer, subsequently the superintending engineer, followed by the chief engineer at zonal level. If the complainant is unsatisfied with the response so far and/or wants to appeal the decision, then officials at the circle level, zonal, or at the level of the consumer grievance redressal forum (CGRF) can be approached. An appeal can also be made before any court and with HERC later.According to DHBVN, it received 485 billing related complaints in circle-1 and 969 in circle-2 this January. The figures for February were 389 for circle-1 and 744 for circle-2. Most of these complaints, the discom says, were resolved within seven days."Our response has been improving. Currently, billing related complaints make up for about 5% of our consumer base, down from 10-12% earlier. We intend to bring it down further. Secondly, the time taken for resolution is also being monitored. But there is always scope of improvement," says Amit Khatri, managing director of DHBVN.