Basant Sharma, a Noida resident received a shocking message on Thursday from the Uttar Pradesh electricity board, claiming that his electricity bill for three months was over ₹4 crore.
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Sharma, who resides in Shramik Kunj in sector 122 works with the Indian Railways and is currently undergoing official training in Shimla.
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At 11:30 am on Thursday, he received an SMS about a suspiciously high bill under his wife, Priyanka Sharma's name, reported The Indian Express.
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Usually per month, he would receive a bill of ₹1490, but this time the amount was beyond his imagination. The message showed a bill amount of ₹4,02,31,842 crore.
{{/usCountry}}Usually per month, he would receive a bill of ₹1490, but this time the amount was beyond his imagination. The message showed a bill amount of ₹4,02,31,842 crore.
{{/usCountry}}He told IE that his house was on rent and after contacting his tenant about the SMS, he was told they only used basic appliances.”
The message also stated that the bill needed to be paid on or before July 24, so he could receive a discount of ₹2,84,969.88.
An Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) executive engineer Shiva Tripathi told IE that no such bill existed. “It was only a system-generated message because of some technical error in the computer system,” he clarified. “In our system, the bill was on hold.”
The engineer also stated that they had not received any complaint from Basant Sharma. According to Tripathi, the head of the Residents’ Welfare Association informed the department about the bill. The bill was then rectified on Thursday and a fresh bill of ₹26,000 was sent to Basant Sharma.
The head of the Resident Welfare Association, Umesh Sharma, said that he had been informed by Basant Sharma about the bill which was over ₹4.02 crore. He got worried and immediately got in touch with the electricity board and asked them to figure it out.