SWABI, Oct 6: Electricity consumers in different parts of the district have complained that the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) have been sending them inflated bills showing more units than the actual consumed.

Talking to this correspondent on Wednesday, they said that on the one hand they had been subjected to over 16 hours loadshedding, on the other the Pesco was busy overcharging them. They said that they were facing immense problems as the metre readers and other field officials were not ready to listen to their complaints and take remedial steps.

They alleged that the Pesco high officials were providing protection to the lower staff in case of sending inflated bills to consumers. They said that it was impossible for the metre readers to include addition units in bills without a green signal from the top.

They also claimed that Pesco officials in their area had been demanding bribes for correction of bills. “The higher the inflated bill the higher the Pesco staff demand in bribe for the correction,” the power consumers claimed.

However, the consumers said that instead of correcting bills the Pesco local staff would convert the inflated payable amount into installments.

Irfan Gul, son of Khan Baz Tordher, told this correspondent that there were 381 units additional in his inflated bill, 573 units in Farman Zeb's bill, 450 units in Baghdad Shah's bill and 1,890 units in Sher Aman's bill. Same was the case with many other consumers in his region.

Muhammad Aamir Khan of Maneri Bala said that his power metre was out of order for the last 16 months and despite numerous visits to Pesco offices in district headquarters he could not get the replacement. However, he said that despite this the Pesco staff sent him Rs9,000 bill, which he did not want to pay.