K-Electric consumers get high ‘average’ bills

Situation emerges after utility suspended physical meter reading

KARACHI: To the utter surprise of some K-Electric consumers, they have received inflated bills at a time when they have limited resources and facing threat from the coronavirus pandemic.

The situation emerged after the private-sector power utility suspended physical meter reading due to lockdown in Sindh and sent “average bills” based on the previous 11-month period or the same month last year - whichever is higher - for March 2020, it has been learnt.

“We have received some complaints about receipt of inflated bills from K-Electric consumers on our email address,” an official of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) told The Express Tribune.

“We have re-directed the complaints to K-Electric and directed them (company officials) to address them,” he said, adding that the number of complaints received by Nepra was not huge, but moderate.

A K-Electric spokesperson said they had a revised formula for average billing from “whichever is higher” to “whichever is lower” for April onwards till physical meter reading began subject to recovery from the health crisis and easing of the lockdown.

“We have informed Nepra about the change in formula,” she said. “We have not sent inflated bills but average bills (for March). They were issued by using the Nepra-approved formula.”

Nepra law, however, says the law for average billing - based on the rule of whichever is higher - applies to defective meters.

“Current circumstances are highly unusual and no law and policy is designed for…pandemic and lockdown. So the existing law is applied after providing information to Nepra and with due legal interpretation. Other DISCOs (power distribution companies) are also following a similar practice (nationwide),” she said.

Formula changed for April

However, consumer bills for April onwards would be issued on the basis of “zero consumption” to the commercial consumers that fall within the category of non-essential sector.

Bills for the commercial consumers that fell within the category of essential services like pharmacies and grocery stores would be sent on the basis of average “60% consumption”, said the company official.

Later, bills of all consumers belonging to different categories like commercial, industrial, agricultural and domestic would be adjusted as per actual consumption once physical meter reading operations resume and the reading is available with the company.

K-Electric supplies electricity to around 2.8 million consumers in Karachi and parts of Sindh and Balochistan.

The spokesperson said industrial consumers would continue to receive bills as per actual consumption as they had installed smart meters and the reading was received automatically.

“Domestic consumers are expected to utilise higher units of electricity since they are spending comparatively more time at home under the lockdown,” she added.

The power utility has suspended physical meter reading to ensure safety of its employees and consumers. “Average billing is an interim measure and will eventually be adjusted in future bills, based on actual meter reading as soon as physical meter reading begins,” she said.

Earlier, the utility had extended the last date for payment of bills below Rs4,000 in addition to providing the option of payments via installments over three months to customers consuming less than 300 units a month under the PM relief programme in the wake of Covid-19, she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2020.

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