TNPDCL raises threshold to Rs 3,000 for high-variation bill checks

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (TNPDCL) has raised the threshold for blocking domestic electricity bills for field verification to Rs 3,000, after finding billing errors in just 100 of more than 29,300 services inspected over the past 10 days.

Around 60,000 domestic services had been blocked under the earlier criteria, which flagged bills showing a variation of more than 20% from the previous assessment.

TNPDCL said that the exercise had led to a large number of genuine assessments being sent for re-verification amid sharp consumption variations caused by humid weather. Field officials had also reported staff shortages and difficulties in using the user IDs of vacant posts to review blocked services.

Under the revised system, only bills where the differential amount exceeds Rs 3,000 compared with the previous assessment will be blocked. TNPDCL said that inspection of more than 29,300 blocked services had detected only 100 billing errors, putting the error rate at 0.34%.

The corporation has prescribed different levels of officials to re-verify bills based on the excess amount, with AEE-level officials checking bills where the increase exceeds Rs 20,000. The exercise has to be completed within five days of blocking the bill to enable prompt corrective action.