Mysterious arrears in power bills leave Mohali residents restless

Unexplained charges, running up to ₹10,000, included in power bills as unpaid arrears despite timely payment of previous bills, says Mohali residents

Expecting zero power bills from July, as announced by Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, domestic consumers in Mohali are instead finding mysterious arrears running up to ₹10,000 in their bills.

The arrears are listed under “Previous unpaid bill arrears”, even when all bills have been paid timely, say the affected consumers. (Biswajit Debnath/HT)

The arrears are listed under “Previous unpaid bill arrears”, even when all bills have been paid timely, say the affected consumers.

Left puzzled by the unexplained charges, consumers have been making rounds of PSPCL offices for clarification, but have failed to get any reasonable answers.

Complaints on PSPCL’s “consumer-friendly” mobile app are also evoking no response, amplifying their restlessness.

Gurdev Singh, a resident of Sector 80, who is in his 70s, said, “I pay my power bill regularly and this time, I was stunned to receive a bill with an unexplained arrear of ₹4,900, bumping up the total to nearly ₹21,000. I went to the PSPCL office to have it fixed, but no official entertained me. The payment has passed and I still have no solution, which will lead to a late charge.”

Another resident of Sector 80, Om Parkash said the latest bill came as a rude shock as it reflected an arrear of ₹5,200, leading to a total of ₹23,000. “On the one hand, the government is promising free power and on the other hand, PSPCL is fooling people by slipping in mysterious charges and then giving them the round around,” he said.

When contacted PSPCL sub-divisional engineer (SDE), commercial, Dheeraj Kumar, said, “In some bills additional security deposit has been added, which is based on the monthly consumption. I request consumers to report any discrepancy in the bills to the office.”

Another senior PSPCL official assured that all complaints were being addressed by the appropriate personnel, and any complaints regarding bills can be submitted with the SDO office concerned.

But Sushil Kumar, a resident of Sector 69, who has received two consecutive power bills with inflated arrears, questioned, “Why didn’t the power department announce publicly about any new charges or security deposit before levying it in the bills? Besides, a security deposit amount is already paid at the time of getting the connection and is reflected on the top of the bill every month. On the other hand, these new charges reflect under ‘unpaid arrears’, so there is no transparency. Worse, till the issue is resolved, the payment date will pass and another arrear for late fee will be added.”

There are nearly 3.5 lakh power consumers in Mohali district, of which 3 lakh fall in the domestic category, and remaining in industrial and commercial.