Bills not inflated: BSES reply to DERC showcause

According to government sources,the discom has stuck to its earlier line of defence insisting that while there was a glitch in the software,it did not lead to any consumers being billed more than what they had consumed.

“According to BSES,the consequence of the technical glitch was that some 60,000 odd consumers received bills of amounts smaller than their consumption in July and in order to make up for that,the difference was added to their bills in August,thereby leading to what is being perceived as inflated bills,” a senior power department official explained.

In a rather voluminous reply — sources said the BSES lawyers had been poring over the details for quite a few days — the discom has also said that the current report submitted by the Standardisation,Testing,and Quality Certification (STQC) is inconclusive and was based on a very small data sample.

Instead,the discom has drawn the commission’s attention to another report filed by the STQC in 2006 which then carried out an audit of their entire billing and financial software.

“The BSES was given a clean chit in that 2006 audit. Their contention is that the software remains the same and hence that report too should be taken into account,” the official explained.

While the DERC refused to make any official statement on the matter,a senior official said,“We will study the BSES response to the notice and issue our direction on the issue by October 31.”

In response to how the DERC will react to the various points listed in BSES’s response,the official added,“The DERC’s decision will be based on fact and not on BSES’s opinion. We will listen to their opinion but in the end a decision will be based on facts presented before us. Whether the BSES likes it or not,the STQC report is fact and it points towards problems in their billing software.”

Meanwhile,the 60,000 odd consumers are waiting for the DERC to arrive at a decision. The commission indicated last week that it may direct the discom to offer some relief to these consumers but only once it had received the discom’s response to the showcause notice.

Officials in the DERC again reaffirmed that it is likely that relief measures will be announced by October 31.

DERC probe
The DERC is also conducting an investigation in the cases of consumers who received bills in August and September that were 50 per cent or more higher than their bills in the corresponding period in the previous years. While no showcause notice has been served to BSES in this regard,many consumers have complained directly to the commission. DERC hopes to conclude that investigation by October 31.