KSEB mulls monthly billing system in Kerala
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Power Minister K Krishnankutty’s claim to introduce monthly billing instead of the existing bimonthly billing is expected to give a fillip to the cash-strapped KSEB. Even though the employee cost will go up by 2 paise for having more staff for meter reading, KSEB will be getting one month’s power bill as advance from the consumer where the monthly interest alone would enable them to reap rich dividends.
For quite some time, both the domestic and non-domestic consumers have been urging the KSEB to go for monthly billing. At the recent public hearing held by the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) in five districts, a section of the consumers had highlighted this issue.
This led the board to hold an impact study on coming out with the monthly billing scheme following the KSERC’s verbal directive.
A senior KSEB official told TNIE that if the monthly billing system is implemented it will see an increase of 2 paise which will be reflected in the bill.
“KSEB will incur more money in terms of increasing the billing staff and printing cost. The drawback for the consumer is that the interval of the bill cycle will come down, by the time the consumer pays the bill, the next bill will be ready. If the monthly billing scheme is implemented, the KSEB tends to gain more as we are bound to get one-month advance payment from the consumer,” said a senior KSEB official.
Currently, a consumer who uses 200 units - 400 units of power, he/she has to pay Rs 8.20 per unit as per the telescopic rates (Energy charge is calculated in telescopic style for domestic customers who consume more than 200 units of power). If the monthly billing system is brought in and the consumer uses 200 units and more, the consumer still ends up paying the telescopic rate of Rs 8.20 per unit.
A top board official confirmed to TNIE that high-level discussions were going on regarding the implementation of the monthly billing system. He further added that if the board did not face any financial commitment, they would take it up favourably.
This means, the power consumers will end up paying more if the monthly billing system is brought into force.
It’s reliably learnt that initially it would be the non-domestic consumers who will be provided with the monthly bill. Interestingly, once the smart meter project is taken up, the significance of the monthly billing system will no longer be valid.