06 Jul 2020  |   05:02am IST

Exorbitant electricity bills give a shock

It seems as if the government is trying to make up for the loss in commercial consumption by overcharging common men who are already facing dire situations due to loss in income; Concerned authorities need to look into sorting out this at the earliest

Citizen concerned person Porvorim

I would like to bring your attention to an issue that is weighing on the Goan people. It is regarding the exorbitant electricity bill received for two months over the lockdown period. I personally have received a bill of Rs 11,007 for a 71-day period. This is the highest bill I have ever received.

I went to the Electricity Department in Porvorim to inquire and put in an application for the same. Upon meeting the Junior Engineer, the only explanation I was offered was that due to the lowdown period the electricity consumption was more.

While I understand his reasoning behind that explanation and while it is true for a lot of people who work in the offices and had to stay home during lockdown period, we are three people living in the house. Elderly mother, three-year-old child and me. And none of us had to stay home from the office. So we have spent the same amount of time at home since before the lockdown consuming the same amount of electricity before and during the lockdown. 

My queries are simple

1. During the lockdown period nobody from the Electricity Department came to take monthly meter readings. So how did they arrive at the consumption units shown in the bill?

2. Why are we not able to receive a monthly breakdown of charges?

3. When our average bills have been between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 how much more can we have consumed to receive a bill of Rs 11,007?

Also I posted a query on a popular group on Facebook whether anyone else had a similar problem. And within minutes there were loads of comments from people with the same problem.

In other places such as Pune etc people were asked to take the photos of their meter reading and send across to the Electricity Department and any discrepancies were adjusted in the subsequent bill. Why hasn’t Goa done that?

It seems as if the government is trying to make up for the loss in commercial consumption by overcharging common men who are already facing dire situations due to loss in income. The concerned authorities need to look into sorting out this at the earliest.