MY tenant vacated the ground floor of my house in November last year. I have been receiving a gas bill of zero consumption since January this year as the rented portion was vacant from Dec 19, 2019, to Sept 20 this year. My Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) customer number is 0436089975.

After dispatching six bills showing no consumption and observing that the meter was not registering any gas volume, the SSGC assumed on its own that my meter had become slow or was passing unregistered gas (PUG). This was done as the meter was not registering any gas consumption owing to the obvious reason.

The SSGC jumped to the conclusion of its choice without carrying out any physical check or verification. According to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) SOPs, the gas company should have sent the meter to its testing laboratory to see if it was really slow or otherwise.

I highlighted this issue in these columns (Aug 14) and challenged the SSGC to either prove that my meter was PUG/slow or withdraw the extra amount of Rs463 charged, and apologise.

Unfortunately, in our culture, we don’t admit our mistake and apologise, especially when it comes to utility companies. The SSGC did not defend the extra charges and silently reversed the additional amount in the next month’s bill (August), but at the same time it included the additional charges of Rs463 in the very same bill.

My question is: by withdrawing the amount, the SSGC has admitted its mistake and should have tendered an apology; and, that being so, why is it including the extra charges again? It shows incompetence on the part of the SSGC whose billing and IT departments seem to lack coordination.

My ordeal did not end here, for the same charges have once again been included in September’s gas bill. This means I am being mentally tortured for the last three consecutive months.

The SSGC should probe who is responsible for repeating the act when it has already admitted its mistake.

Shakil Ahmed Bokhari
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2020