Gurugram resident Sandeep Sharma owns a flat in Noida sector 51, which he had rented out. The tenant, during his 14 months’ stay, had always paid the electricity bill, which was roughly around ₹2,000 per month.
“One month after my tenant vacated, the power distribution company (discom) Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) served me a bill of ₹1.8 lakh stating that the meter reader had been under-billing till now,” he said.
Similarly, Rajeev Goyal received a bill of ₹5.5 lakh in October for his sector 22 house that he had rented to someone to run as a paying guest house facility.
“When I enquired about it with the discom, they said that over 63,000 units had not been reported. It is obvious that the tenant, in connivance with the metre reader, paid less than the actual consumption. Now, when I am asking him to clear the dues, he is daring me to get him to vacate the house,” he said, adding that he is contemplating legal action.
Goyal and Sharma’s stories are among the many that PVVNL, which distributes power to west UP districts, has unearthed during its drive to reduce revenue loss. The public sector company outsourced the meter reading duties to a private company. It has now come to light that people who read meters deliberately under reported the power consumption.
Discom officials say that under billing has not only caused revenue loss, but is often believed to be line loss — due to loss during transmission.
Arvind Mallappa Bangari, the managing director of PVVNL, said that in the last six months, FIRs against over 200 meter-readers have been lodged in different districts. “Alarmed with poor revenue collection in some areas of these districts, we started checking the actual meter reading. Consumers in whose name the meter is now have no option than to pay it, even if it was the tenant who bribed the reader,” he said. “Since these meter readers are from private companies, we have intimated this to their top management. We are also creating awareness among the consumers that the better revenue collection will ultimately benefit them as it will reduce the power tariffs.”
Under billing, however, will not carry any penal interest unlike late payment of bills, he added.
Virendra Nath Singh, Noida divisional chief engineer of PVVNL, said that Noida division has achieved around 100% target of revenue collection in October. “We have so far disconnected power lines of around 12,000 defaulters, who have yet not cleared their power dues of over ₹25 crore. We have also recovered over ₹8 crore from nearly 5,000 consumers, who paid this amount in fear of disconnection,” he said.
