Pay 2019 March Power Bill Amounts For March 2020 Too

Telangana Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy today urged the people of the state to pay as their electricity consumption charges for March 2020, the same electricity bill amount that they had received during March of 2019.

He said that the government had decided to collect March 2019's bill amounts as there was no way for their metre readers to visit homes and record the metre readings.

Addressing the media after a review meeting with the higher officials of the power utilities, including the Chairman and Managing Director of Transco and Genco D Prabhakar Rao, at the TSSPDCL office on Monday, Reddy said that the state ERC (Electricity Regulatory Commission) had also approved the same.

Claiming that the bill for the month of March 2020 was likely to be 20% higher than that of March 2019, he said that the government had decided not to collect any additional amount for now. "After the lockdown is lifted and the new bills are generated the amounts will be adjusted," he said.

Consumers were directed to pay online and through other payment options which were already available to them as the across-the-counter payment facilities of bills had been suspended as per the order of the Telangana state Electricity Regulatory Commission.

As there was no problem in taking the readings of metres for industrial units (the HT sector), almost all the bills for them had been produced and handed over, Reddy said.

He added that the employees of the electricity department were working very hard notwithstanding the ongoing lockdown to ensure round-the-clock power supply.