NEW DELHI: Due to unavailability of meter
readings
in the lockdown, commercial and industrial users will not be provisionally billed for energy usage,
Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission
(DERC) has stated. Such users will only be billed for fixed and associated applicable charges.
“For industrial and non-domestic categories of
electricity
consumers, the provisional billing will be done only in those cases where the meter of the consumer could not be read or recorded by the
distribution
licensee during the billing cycle. In other cases, the distribution licensee will raise the bill based on actual consumption of electricity recorded by the meter…The distribution licensee will raise the provisional bill for the fixed charges and associated applicable charges only, considering the energy consumption as nil,” the order dated May 4 stated.
Where the provisional bill, with effect from March 24, has not been raised, the respective discom will have to revise the bill. “In case the consumer furnishes the meter reading s himself along with supporting photographs through registered mobile or e-mail, the billing for the selected cycles will be done based on those readings, subject to adjustment when meter is actually read or recorded by the distribution licensee.”
The decision comes in the wake of suspension of manual meter readings by
Delhi discoms
during the lockdown.
Earlier, last month, in a bid to encourage people to pay their bills on time, DERC had announced a rebate scheme too.
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