A serious lapse in routine monitoring by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has landed a large industrial unit in Mandi Gobindgarh with a retrospective demand of electricity charges of ₹5.44 crore, exposing glaring gaps in administrative oversight for high load power connections.
The case relates to Shiva Casting Private Limited, a large supply consumer with a sanctioned load of 4,000 kW. From June 2023 to May 2024, the unit was billed using incorrect multiplying factors (MF) for its electricity meters, a mistake that went undetected for nearly 11 months despite clear norms requiring periodic inspections of high load connections.
As per official inspection records, the bidirectional meter installed at the unit should have been billed with a multiplying factor of 60, but PSPCL continued billing it with a factor of 40. In addition, the solar check meter was wrongly billed with a factor of 200 instead of the correct factor of 8. This resulted in significant under billing of actual power consumption over several billing cycles.
The discrepancy came to light, when a site inspection was carried out reportedly after audit officials repeatedly flagged the absence of required job orders and documentation. Following this inspection, PSPCL issued a notice demanding ₹5.44 crore as arrears for the period during which the wrong factors were applied.
{{/usCountry}}The discrepancy came to light, when a site inspection was carried out reportedly after audit officials repeatedly flagged the absence of required job orders and documentation. Following this inspection, PSPCL issued a notice demanding ₹5.44 crore as arrears for the period during which the wrong factors were applied.
{{/usCountry}}The industrial unit challenged the demand before the Corporate Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CCGRF) Ludhiana arguing that it had paid all electricity bills on time and that the error occurred entirely due to PSPCL’s failure to conduct mandatory annual checks. The company maintained that had inspections been carried out as required, the mistake could have been detected much earlier, preventing the accumulation of such a huge amount.
While the CCGRF acknowledged “gross negligence” on the part of PSPCL officials and ordered an inquiry to fix responsibility of delinquent officers, it still upheld the recovery of the principal amount. The forum observed that electricity regulations allow utilities to recover charges for the entire period during which a billing mistake continued even if the consumer was not at fault.
However, relief was granted on the interest component. The forum quashed the interest charged on the retrospective demand, observing that PSPCL had no regulatory backing to levy interest for a period when the bill itself had not been raised. Only interest on delayed installments if any, was permitted.
Following this, the consumer took up his case to the Electricity Ombudsman which observed that the case was clearly one of about the wrong application of multiplying factors and not meter inaccuracy, uphelding the forum’s decision, allowing ₹5.44 crore recovery but reiterating that PSPCL’s handling of the case reflected serious administrative lapses.