Hereafter, hardships for many consumers in Chennai/TN regarding payment of electricity bills!!
Posted on: 31/Oct/2022 9:28:33 AM
Many consumers of electricity in Chennai are not used to the payment of their electricity bills through online mode of payment. Now, the new move by Tangedco or Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company could create more issues for them.
The news is that Tangedco has put forth a proposal to make compulsory online payment of electricity bill charges that are more than Rs 2000 for LT consumers/ domestic consumers. It is known that currently the electricity bill charges above Rs 5000 for LT consumers are being paid online/ DD/ cheque etc in Chennai. On 27th October 2022, a code review panel meeting took place and in that meeting the proposal to this effect was made. The chairman and MD of Tangedco Mr. Rajesh Lakhani was also present
It was brought to light by some sources belonging to the code review panel that all the members of the panel agreed to make online payment compulsory for LT consumers whose charges exceed Rs 2000. Information collected is that the code review panel`s recommendation would be submitted to TN Electricity Regulatory Commission or TNERC. Truth is that the TNERC would publish a draft notification for the public comments and later on the amendment would be notified. This would be carried out after accepting the recommendation.
Counter staff have been given oral instructions by the senior officers to direct the consumers for electricity bill payments of more than Rs 2000 to pay by online mode. This was as per a trade union leader belonging to the Central organisation of TN Electricity Employees. The main objective behind Tangedco`s latest move was to reduce the counter staff and number of counters.It must be noted that all the HT consumers have been paying their electricity bill charges by online only.
In a section office, the number of counters was reduced from one counter in 5000 service connections to just 1 counter. It was explained by the union leader that in 2021 instructions were given to operate only one counter in a building even if many section officers were present at the same premises. In addition to the above change, Tangedco has also made filing of applications for new service connections and name transfer and tariffs change online etc.
Point to be noted is that the compulsory bill payments of Rs 2000 and more was acceptable to those in the cities and not in the suburbs or in the rural places in TN. This was mentioned by Mr. T. Sadagopan, president of TN Progressive Consumer Centre
