Over 1.25L users got inflated BEST electricity bills’
Somit Sen, TNN | Dec 3, 2011,
MUMBAI:

More than 1.25 lakh consumers in the island city were overcharged on account of faulty electricity meters in the past one year, a BEST panel member claimed.

At a BEST committee meeting on Friday, member Ravi Raja said at least 12% of total consumers have complained of "inflated bills". "This is a serious issue and the administration should ensure that people are billed accurately," he said.

The BEST supplies power to nearly 9.9 lakh consumers in areas between Sion and Cuffe Parade.

Raja had recently exposed how a senior citizen from Sion received a bill of Rs 21 lakh, however, while rectifying the issue the BEST electricity wing had given her a credit of Rs 43 lakh in the next month's bill. Raja told the committee that the BEST's vigilance wing also failed to recover dues from those booked for power theft. In 2007-08, the vigilance cell had detected 1,360 cases of power pilferage and recovered Rs 17 crore, it collected Rs 20 crore (in 2008-09), Rs 26 crore (in 2009-10), but in 2010-11 it could recover only Rs 12 crore.

Sena member Sunil Ganacharya pointed out that consumers were not getting their bills on time. BEST deputy general manager Atul Patil, said that he would look into the cases of inflated bills and ensure that bills reached users on time.

"As far as recovering dues are concerned, the figures for 2010-11 did not show the correct picture as there was an amendment to the Electricity Act during this period. We can now recover only for the past one year and not two years, which was the practice in the past," he stated