90-year-old woman with 3 bulbs in her tiny shed gets electricity bill of Rs 1 lakh in Karnataka

“I have only three bulbs in the house, and my bills never cross Rs 80. But I have got Rs 1 lakh this time,” she told the media. GESCOM responded to the viral tweet showcasing the erroneous bill and said it would rectify the issue.

Power Minister K J George stated that the inflated bill was due to a meter glitch, and Girijamma was not obligated to pay the amount.

After the minister’s statement, GESCOM officials swiftly reached Girijamma’s shed. Executive engineer Rajesh inspected the power meter and confirmed that she got the exorbitant bill due to an erroneous meter reading. He told Girijamma that she was not required to pay the bill, and she thanked the officer and the media.

Earlier this month, a man in Ullal got a power bill of Rs 7 lakh. Sadashiva Acharya and his wife used to get a monthly bill of around Rs 3,000 and they were in total disbelief when they received the Rs-7,71,072 bill from the Mangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Mescom), which later admitted “the error” on its part and revised the bill to revised bill of Rs 2,833.

The incident sparked public outrage as sky-high electricity bills for May shocked many consumers. Electricity tariff in Karnataka was hiked by Rs 2.89 per unit since June even as the Congress government, under the Gruha Jyoti scheme, promised to give free electricity to households whose average consumption over the last 12 months was less than 200 units.