All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC) has come down heavily on the state government over the alleged inflated electricity bills and installation of prepaid meters.
The president of Assam state unit of AIPC and state Congress secretary Gauravv Somani said that just by issuing toll free numbers and Whatsapp numbers for the prepaid meter consumers government is trying to take the escape route and avoiding the seriousness of the entire matter.
Somani said, “Why is the government not being able to address the drastic increase in electricity bills after the installation of digital prepaid meters? The electricity bills with earlier installed smart meters and recently installed digital meters have resulted in the increase of 25% to 30% in monthly electricity bill and this is only possible if there is a difference between the earlier static electronic meter and new digital smart prepaid meters regarding the measurement of electricity and probably APDCL is not also following the same BIS for electrical Metrology in installing the new prepaid meters.”
He also added, “It was either the earlier smart meters with some default resulting in low electricity bill generation or there is a fault in the newly digital prepaid meters showing escalated electricity bills” thus, Government has to clarify its stand on this, Somani stressed.
The profits of the APDCL in the year 2021-22 was more than rupees 300 crores and estimated profit for 2022-23 is around 500 crore rupees as informed, claimed Somani in a statement.
AIPC asserted that APDCL should not act as a profit making business enterprise rather should strive hard to render service at the optimum cost operations.
“In the name of digital prepaid meters and electricity bills, APDCL have started looting money from general public. People are now clueless on the amount of electricity consumed and its bill structure. Since now APDCL is a profit making enterprise, Government should provide electricity to the people at a subsidized rate or should provide 200 units of free electricity to every household,” Somani urged in the statement.
Also AIPC has demanded the government to enquire the genuinity of the installed digital prepaid meters which has raised doubts with the escalated electricity bills and further hitting the pockets of the people of Assam.
