NEPRA hearing: K-Electric says consumers billed for up to 34 days will receive adjusted bills

• KE official says overbilling not done deliberately; cites Eid and Ashura holidays.
• NEPRA officials say authority received 64 applications from across Pakistan, out of which 13 were against KE.
• NEPRA vice chairman says it seems metre readers of power companies are creating problems for consumers.

ISLAMABAD: The K-Electric on Thursday said that consumers who were billed for up to 34 days — a fact that was revealed during an investigation carried out by Geo.tv last month — will have the excess amount adjusted in the next few bills.

Geo.tv had reviewed bills from Karachi’s K-Electric (KE), Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco), Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco), Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco), and the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco).

The investigation had revealed that a number of power companies had billed their customers for more than the allowed 31 days in one month on more than one occasion since January 2021.

This was also confirmed in a probe conducted by the Power Information Technology Company (PITC).

National Electric Power and Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Chairman Tauseef H. Farooqui today chaired a hearing regarding the issue during which a KE official said that consumers were charged for more than 31 days in view of Eid and Ashura holidays.

KE Chief Financial Officer Muhammad Aamir Ghaziani told the officials that the overbilled amount will be adjusted in the next few bills.

To this, NEPRA Sindh member Rafique Ahmad Shaikh said the authority does not agree with the KE official's statement and added, "whatever the issues are, consumers should not be treated unfairly."

The KE official said that the overbilling was not done deliberately.

"K-Electric overbilled up to 34 days," the KE official told the hearing when Nepra vice-chairman asked about the duration the KE had overbilled its consumers.

During the hearing, NEPRA officials briefed that the authority received 64 applications from all over the country, out of which 13 were against the KE. "Mepco has accepted that they overbilled," they said.

Meanwhile, a consumer of Rahim Yar Khan Energy Limited (RYKEL) complained of overbilling of 52 days.

Terming overbilling a serious issue, NEPRA Vice Chairman Rafique Ahmed Shaikh said that it seemed metre readers of power distribution companies were also creating problems for the consumers.

“Those metre readers found guilty of reporting data for excessive days will be dismissed from service,” warned the NEPRA officer.

He maintained that NEPRA will issue a detailed verdict in this regard. NEPRA will launch an inquiry to assess the total overbilling by each power distribution company, he said and adjourned the hearing.