Rawalpindi
As if electricity tariff was not enough, a number of taxes and duties are religiously added to the bills to fleece the consumers and the practice continues. Groaning under the burden of skyrocketing inflation, the hapless consumer has no way out. They somehow manage to pay the bill as Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) is very efficient to cut off the supply if you happen to be a defaulter.
The justification of inflated bills offered by Iesco is that more electricity is consumed in the months of May, June, July and August. Thus they have warned the consumers to be prepared to face yet another inflated bill for the month of August.
“Bill Adjustment” is a convenient term used by Iesco to fleece the consumers. “For the last two months I have been receiving bill ranging between Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 extra amount under bill adjustment which I fail to understand,” said Muhammad Iftikhar a resident of Mubarak Lane. We are already using expensive electricity plus unjustified taxes. This only serves to add fuel to fire, he protested.
Iesco Senior Superintendent Billing (Rawalpindi Circle) Sardar Muhammad Azam Khan told 'The News' that consumer receive inflated bills because of increased consumption of electricity in hot weather. Secondly, some meter readers got reading of 40 days instead of 30 days because of Eid holidays, therefore some consumers got inflated bills in the month of July, he claimed. He conceded that consumers get inflated bills although we get reading through digital mobile cameras. The consumer has to pay more as he consumes more units in the hot and humid weather in summer, he maintained.
According to an electricity bill number 03143620678601 U, we are paying six taxes/duties in addition to the price of electricity. These taxes are PTV fee of Rs35, ED electricity Rs112.79, General Sales Tax (GST) Rs1,519, Neelum Jhelum Surcharge Rs64.30, TR Surcharge Rs1,029 and FC Surcharge Rs276.49. In the month of February the consumer paid Rs1,900, in March Rs1,622, in April Rs1,806, in May Rs2,463, in June Rs3,354 and in the month of July the bill soared to Rs10,556. The consumer is paying the bill in installments.
Raja Manzoor, the sole breadwinner of a family of five, was shocked when he received electricity bill of Rs9,531 for the month of July. “We are not only facing long hours of loadshedding and hot weather but inflated bills in the month of May, June, July and August. Government should be considerate and sympathetic and should give extra relief in the simmering summer months,” he appealed.
Syed Murad Ali Shah, a resident of Mohanpura, said angrily that amid massive loadshedding in peak summer season, we have received inflated bills with an average raise of 40-50 per cent in the month of May, June and July. “Under what criterion is Iesco sending inflated bills,” he demanded. Reliable sources said that it showed the fact that the electric power distribution companies (Discos) in a bid to show better performance in terms of reducing the distribution losses, and electricity theft have started charging the consumers more and more.
It is believed that Iesco faces loss of Rs50-60 billion on account of bad governance, inefficiency, theft and line losses and in order to meet the losses the burden is passed on to consumers. Thus in fact the consumer pays bill not for 12 months but for 14 months in a year which is sheer injustice to the consumers.
“I have neither air condition nor air cooler in my two bed room apartment. I am using only fans in rooms. In spite of that I received bill of Rs5,500 in th July,” said Shehzad Ahmed Butt, a resident of Bakramandi. In routine, I paid Rs1,000 to Rs1,200 per month but in the month of May, June and July I am unable to pay electricity bills, he said.
Muhammad Asghar, a resident of Adra, said that his take-home salary is Rs30,000 per month. He pays Rs8,000 as house rent. Education of three children takes away a big chunk of his income. He was bitter in his remarks and said that life has been made miserable and Iesco is rubbing salt into our wounds. He asked as to how he could pay such a huge bill of Rs7,845 in the month of July. He was skeptical and appealed to the PM to have pity on the common man.
Nazia Suman, a working lady, said that it seems we will die of taxes. “How can we pay inflated bills while government of every country provides maximum relief in electricity, gas tariff? Government should cut down unnecessary expenditure to provide relief to the common man.
“Nawaz Sharif should provide electricity at reasonable rates. Energy crisis has gone from bad to worse in the tenure of PML-N government as people are fed up with inflated bills and excessive load shedding.”
Advocate Ali Asghar Naqvi, resident of Ashraf Colony, also narrated the same tale of agony. He got electricity bill of Rs17,000 in July which is cruel, to say the least. He says that the bill she received last year in the same month was just Rs1,900 which had now soared to Rs17000.Nobody is taking action against it, he denounced.
The consumers of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have appealed to government to provide them maximum relief in peak summer season otherwise as they would be unable to make both ends meet as electricity bill would leave nothing to live on.