62,096 consumers received power bills in excess: Probe
The Power Division also identified 290 staff and officers involved with sending out excess bills to consumers
A probe committee formed by the Power Division has found evidence of 62,096 household consumers receiving electricity bills in excess.
Adding that the taskforce has recommended punitive action against all staff involved in issuing those bills, the Power Division said the deadline for consumers to pay their electricity bills without any delay fine might be extended.
Revealing the probe committee's findings on Sunday at an online press briefing held for this specific purpose, Power Division Secretary Sultan Ahmed said, "We are thinking about extending the facility that allowed consumers to pay their bills without any fines in June.
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"However, this facility might be available only for household consumers."
The Power Division has also identified 290 staff and officers involved in sending out excessive bills to consumers, and recommended departmental action against them after further probe.
The secretary further said, "The taskforce has found anomalies in 62,096 electricity bills. Among the 2.9 crore consumers of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (REB), 34,611 received excessive electricity bills.
"Similarly, 15,266 consumers of the Dhaka Power Distribution Company, 5,657 of the Dhaka Electric Supply Company, 2,524 of Northern Electric Supply Company, 556 of West Zone Power Distribution Company and 2,582 of Power Development Board have received excessive bills."
Apologising to consumers over the issue, Sultan Ahmed said, "We are always consumer-friendly and we are hopeful about recovering the lost trust of our consumers. In future, the power distribution companies will prepare bills using the 100 percent meter reading process."
At the press conference, Power Division said the REB has formed a monitoring committee to track down the staff responsible for excessive electricity bills. The REB is finalising their report, and will take action against those responsible under the job rules.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Power Distribution Company has suspended four staff including an executive engineer and sent show cause notices to executive engineers of 36 divisions over the matter.
The company also terminated contractual employment of 14 staff, including meter readers and a data entry operator. One executive engineer has been transferred as well.
The West Zone Power Distribution Company has sent show cause notices to its 223 employees over excessive power bills.
