PESHAWAR, July 19: Electricity consumers in different parts of the provincial capital have complained of over-billing by the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and demanded its immediate rectification.

Information gathered from different areas, mainly from the rural ones, suggested that consumers were annoyed over the excessive billing by the Pesco staff during the last couple of months.

They said that their electricity bills carry incorrect meter readings, as the figures mentioned in the bills and those on the meters did not match, and to get it corrected was an uphill task for the them.

They said that most of their complains regarding billing corrections often remained unanswered. They also complained about repetition of arrears which had been adjusted in previous months’ bills.

Arbab Mohammad Amir, town nazim of council-IV, said electricity consumers of his area were also confronted with poor customer service delivered by the Pesco staff. He also complained of hours-long loadshedding in his area.

He said in his town council, mainly comprising rural areas, people had to run from pillar to post to get their bills corrected, because of poor services of billing staff.

“Neither the staff of the sub-divisional offices concerned nor the revenue offices are ready to entertain their complaints; rather they are suggesting them to pay whatever amount has been mentioned in their bills,” lamented Mr Amir.Haji Mohammad Sharif, Nazim of Town Council-II, echoed similar complaints. He said his area had four sub-divisional offices of Pesco, mostly supplying electricity to rural areas, where he had many complaints of over-billing.

A Pesco spokesman, when contacted, conceded that the company high-ups had also received some reports about over-billing in some parts of the province.

He, however, denied its presence at a major level. He also denied that the Pesco staff was doing this deliberately.

The spokesman said that Pesco Chief Executive Brig Sakhi Marjan had taken a strong note of the complaints in a meeting held on July 17, and had already ordered an inquiry into the matter.