The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) has ordered all Discoms not to impose late payment surcharge upon those consumers who have been unable to settle their dues because of slow internet connections at billing counters.
The order, issued by the commission a day ago, comes as great relief for thousands of consumers in Noida and Ghaziabad who had been complaining of difficulties in paying bills for the past one month.
Residents had complained that they were unable to make payments despite standing in serpentine queues at billing centres for hours.
They said that though they were not at fault for being unable to make bill payments, the discom, Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (PVVNL), was imposing penalties on them. "It's very unfair to expect consumers to pay penalties when they have to return without making payments despite standing at the queues for hours," said OP Sharma, a resident of Sector 16 in Noida. The discom had told consumers that bill payments were affected due to a state-wide malfunction of the internet system of the power corporation.
The commission has directed discoms to extend the last dates for payment of dues. The orders were issued after a petition was filed by UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad, a state-level electricity consumers' body. The petition had been filed after similar problems were experienced by power consumers in Lucknow.
Discom officials said that work is on to fix the problem of internet connectivity. "Consumers will be intimated about the revisions done to their due dates of payments," said a senior discom official.
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