I RECENTLY received an SMS from K-Electric. I was surprised that the bill amount was three times more than what my usual consumption had been from the last 13 months, for I have not installed any new appliances since last load was inspected by K-Electric.

I saw the details of the bill and was amazed to note that previous reading had not changed, while I was paying my bills on time. I contacted K-Electric helpline but to no avail. I then went to North Karachi’s Integrated Business Centre, where customer care staff’s behaviour was nasty and arrogant.

They were asking irrelevant questions over and over again. After lot of efforts I approached their manager. He was worse to say the least.

My point was clear – that previous months’ ‘current reading’ should be the previous reading of my current bill. They didn’t count the units they already had charged me, but the manager argued that according to correct meter reading my bill was too less and that was why they were charging average bill even though meter was working properly.

After arguing for half an hour, the manager conceded that the bill was totally incorrect and the reading noted by meter reader was wrong. He gave me 15 days to correct it and asked me to provide CNIC and Sui gas bill copies. They never told why they needed the Sui gas bill to correct my electricity bill.

Even educated citizens having awareness struggle to deal with such issues, leave alone those who are unaware how to tackle such problems and are paying inflated bills.

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, K-Electric, the federal ombudsman should look into this manipulation in power bills on an urgent basis.

Kaleem Mahmood

Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2018