The government has lately decided to exempt 5 percent surcharge for late payment of electricity bills by household customers for another month taking the ongoing coronavirus crisis into account.
According to an order issued by Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) on Thursday, the consumers now can pay their electricity bills for the months of February-June by July 31 without any fine.
The same day BERC also directed six power distribution companies to carry out the decision.
The order came following requests from the Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and state-run electricity distribution companies.
Earlier, household electricity consumers were allowed to pay their delayed bills of February, March and April till June 30 with a view to containing the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Many consumers across the country could not pay the electricity bills in time as the banks and offices were shut amid nationwide shutdown from March 26 to May 30.
In the meantime, many consumers also received inflated bills and refrained from paying those within the due time hoping that those would be corrected by the bill-issuing authorities.
Some alleged that the bills were almost double the usual monthly bills, which was much higher than the consumption and the expected amount. While others alleged that they got inflated electricity bills even without consuming the electricity. Some also alleged that their consumed unit numbers were ‘intentionally’ set upward marginally to get inflated rate.
A probe committee found that over 61,265 inflated bills were issued by the power distribution companies.
A taskforce constituted by the Power Division recommended punitive measures, including suspension from jobs against around 290 employees of different distribution companies for their alleged involvement in providing inflated bills. It also assured consumers of resolving the issues as soon as possible.
