Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML) said that around 6.7 lakh customers are yet to pay their bills, as customers struggle with inflated bills.
Addressing mediapersons, Kandarp Patel, CEO, AEML, said that during the lockdown 7.5 lakh consumers were unable to pay their bills. “Pre-lockdown, we had 2.5 lakh unpaid customers and this went up by another 7.7 lakh in May,” he said.
Post the lockdown, when AEML issued bills, it raised the hackles of many customers, and the matter is also before the Bombay High Court. “We explained to them the reason for high bills and our outreach has had positive results,” said Patel. The company also said that 94 per cent of meter readings have happened and the remaining 6 per cent were in “red zones”.
AEML has a total of 25 lakh consumers in Mumbai.
A week back, Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited (AEML) attributed the inflated power bills to a combination of summer season usage and no physical meter reading in the last three months as a result of lockdown. According to Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) directives, power distribution companies in Mumbai which include Adani Electricity, Tata Power, BSES and Mahavitaran had billed customers for March, April and May on the average consumption of the previous three months – December, January and February. Since, those were winter months, the average bill during lockdown months was also lower.
Generally, the average consumption during summers goes up by 30 per cent but this summer, it went up by 30 per cent, said Patel.
AEML also said that it had received 48,000 complaints and said that 95 per cent of the complaints have got resolved, without a change to any of the bill amount.
Earlier, MERC has allowed discoms to provide three months’ EMI facility while using credit cards to pay electricity bills and said that power supply won’t be disconnected if one opts for the EMI the option to pay their electricity bills.
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