Commercial offices shut for two months, yet power bill sky high!

When advocate Prerak Choudhary received an electricity bill of R7042 for his office at Fort he was dumbfounded So were many others whose commercial properties have been shut since March due to the COVID19 lockdown BEST said the workers couldnt check the meters due to the shutdown and hence consumers were charged an average amount based on their past bills Consumers say this is unfair considering they have already suffered lossesMy first instinct on receiving the April bill was to scream unfair I had shut down my office on March 21 and have not opened the chambers since said Choudhary a Colaba resident who practises at the Bombay High CourtBEST workers repair a cable fault in WorliHe added I paid my bill online but on May 20 I shot off an email to the BEST Undertakings general manager questioning the basis on which the bill was generated An excerpt from Choudharys email reads I was shocked and taken aback to see the huge amounts that have been billed to me regardless of the fact that I have not opened my office during the lockdown period ie after March 21 sic The BEST should adopt a sensitive approach and should not overbill and overcharge its customers I hope you take this communication positively from a consumer and responsible citizen and not as a complaint he concluded his email to the managerRemained shutThe BEST has been sending texts to consumers on the cell phones for online payment of the bills They read Due to the COVID19 lockdown we are unable to read meters or send physical bills Your estimated bill amount isKamlakar Shenoy activistSuresh Mishra who has a factory in Byculla is among those who have received inflated bills for properties shut since the lockdown was announced in March He said he got a bill of R18000 for April and roughly the same amount for May for a place that has not been opened for almost two months Usually when the factory is open I paid around R25000 monthly What I am paying now is too high ac as the place is shut he addedHow is the board generating an invoice without reading the meter based on an assumption made from the previous months reading Mishra asked in an email to the BEST UndertakingPervez Cooper SoBo residentCharge minimal rateHowever Pervez Cooper a South Mumbai resident who has an office at Grant Road said he received a small amount of approximately R1740 as bills through March April and May I have a small bill to pay but what about other retail stores and establishments in the Grant Road area who have been charged huge amounts They should have been charged a minimal meter rate and when things got back to normal the amount could have been adjustedThis is daylight robbery When an establishment has remained shut for over a month then why should people have to pay such huge amounts It is absolutely inhuman and unwarranted Cooper saidCausing us lossesActivist Kamlakar Shenoy said he had raised the issue with BEST in April itself BEST is dutybound to raise the actual bills after reading the meter You are well aware that the electricity consumption now may not even be 5 per cent of the average bill due to the lockdown when consumption and output is zero as business is at a standstill he wrote in his email to BESTShenoy told midday They have been wrongfully raising average bills to extract more money from consumers to cause wrongful losses to themWhat MERC order saysA Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission MERC order issued on May 9 stated Considering the lockdown for excessive recovery from industrial and commercial consumers on account of possibility of higher assessment for a month only a token amount based on 10 per cent of the average consumption would be billed to premises under lockdownBEST versionBEST Deputy Public Relations Officer Manoj Varade said An average billing has been done as we dont have the staffers to read the meters due to the lockdown To the customers writing to us with queries we have assured that the excess amount will be adjusted if need be in future bills They can pay online or by cheque Our tariff is on the lower side when compared to other power utility servicesHe added that they have deployed all possible services for COVID19 need We have given our 72 mini bus fleet to be used as ambulances on the MCGMs request We are providing dedicated bus services to hospitals police and MCGM for transportation of their staff for emergency servicesVarade added Even through the lockdown we have not cut off power supply to anyone even if have not been able to pay the bills In fact there was an electricity issue in a containment zone some time ago and we immediately fixed it This is our contribution to the cityCharging 10 of averageAn Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd spokesperson said they are charging 10 per cent of average consumption of past three months to maintain consistency as per MERC directions Due to COVID19 lockdown physical meter reading has not been possible the spokesperson said Once normalcy returns all amounts will be adjusted We encourage selfmeter reading through various digital mediums such as Elektra Digi Assistant WhatsApp or SMS in order to avoid such confusionTata Power refused to commentCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news