Inflated bills sent to electricity consumers

LAHORE : Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has dispatched highly inflated bills to hundreds of consumers living in a housing society.

I was astonished to see my December power bill of over Rs 100,000, which is 50 times more than my average bill in these low-usage months. I have installed solar panels under net-metering arrangements and my power bills can never be so high, said Malik Nadeem, who live in a ten-marla house in Fazaia Housing Society. Adnan, another resident of the same housing society, said he also received exaggerated bill of Rs 16,000 against 290 units but interestingly, picture of meter reading was not printed on my latest bill.

Instead, he said, a photo of a man was printed on the bill and it was typed in Urdu language that meter-reading was not made possible due to blocking of staff concerned entry into the housing society.

Other residents also complained about receiving inflated bills with picture of a man instead of power meter.

A Lesco official admitted dispatching average bills to consumers while claiming that power utility had no option but resorted to issuing inflated bills as meter-reader was not allowed to take reading this month by the security guards deputed at main gate of society. So he placed photo of one of them on bills instead of meter. A resident of the society claimed that at least 110 houses received such bills having excessive amount, alleging that power utility are victimising consumers as a result of fight between two entities.

The management of housing society, however squarely shifted blame on staff of Lesco. An official deputed at security said staff of power utility used to come without wearing any uniform and this particular employee did not event present official card or CNIC, prompting staff deputed at security to block his unauthorised entry.

He was asked for identification because he neither had service card nor CNIC. However, official added that contact with the power utility have been made for issuing upto-date bills.

Malik Nadeem, resident of the society who was infuriated over slackness of power utility, said it seemed Lesco staff is not working under any management as they lack basic norms and discipline. He was of the view that consumers are being issued heavy amount of bills for no reasons and no one was ready to address the problem. If Lesco staff faced any problem in discharging their duties, he observed, the power utility should have taken up issue with the management of housing society after providing their staff proper uniform and office card. Instead, he regretted, the callous staff of power utility made whole affair a laughing stock. Power utility has already been infamously known for issuing inflated bills to consumers for no reasons, he recalled.

Such a non-professional attitude unfortunately goes unnoticed and consumers have no third-party independent forum for seeking justice against highhandedness of the power utility, he concluded.