THE Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), Larkana, has sent me an unjustified and illegal detection bill (No 19382260034804), showing an inflated amount. After receiving it, I went to the office and told the relevant official that according to Electricity Act a detection bill can only be issued after following certain prerequisites. But he kept coming up with one flimsy argument after another. His main argument was that the low consumption of units at my house meant something fishy was going on. I repeatedly told him that the house had a solar system of 3.6kW installed three years ago, and that we were a small family, and that explained the low consumption of grid electricity. The man was not satisfied.

I also brought up the issue of rampant electricity theft in the area that had even led to short circuit in the area. After one such incident, I had filed an application on my own for a change of electricity meter at my residence. The application was filed on Oct 24, 2023.

After there was no action taken on the application, I had filed a complaint with the office of the Federal Ombudsman against the unresponsiveness of the relevant officials. After nearly five months, I myself took the official letter from the Ombudsman’s office which had directed that the meter be changed. The challan was issued on March 12, 2024, and was paid the very next day. A copy of the paid challan was submitted to the Sepco office as well. To my dismay, more than three months later, the matter has not moved an inch. And now I have been slapped with another unjustified and patently illegal detection bill. This surely is victimisation, persecuting a consumer.

Aadil Hussain
Larkana

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2024