Lucknow, June 3 (KNN) The power consumers in the state can soon send their meter readings to the billing agencies through an SMS or email.

Consumers, in all towns, where on line billing facility is available, can opt for submission of their meter reading to the licensee through e-mail and SMS.

“The option once given can be changed only after 06 months or more. The consumers opting for this facility will get their e-mail address/mobile no. registered with the licensee on the designated website or through SMS on the specified number,” Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) said in a notification.

The urban consumers can submit their meter reading every month, whereas the rural consumers can submit their readings bimonthly.

“The licensee shall integrate the information submitted by the consumers in its billing system in such a way that after maximum of three days of the submission of meter reading the consumer is able to extract his bill from the web site or the licensee sends the bill through SMS to the consumer,” UPERC added.

Such consumers will not be provided with a hard copy of the bill unless requested by the consumer.

In case of submission of meter reading on line or through SMS or on spot billing counter the onus of submission of correct meter reading would lie on the consumers.

If a consumer submits a lower reading than what exists in the meter with intent to reduce the amount of electricity bill, such suppression of meter reading shall amount to an unauthorized use of electricity. In such a case the unauthorized storage of reading shall be treated as unauthorized act and the licensee shall charge the consumer for the stored reading at one and half times the highest energy charge applicable on the consumer.

In case a consumer has neither been billed by the licensee in the routine course and nor the consumer has submitted his/her reading for some billing cycles, the licensee shall inspect the premises of the consumer and work out the number of units consumed after the last meter reading.

“The licensee will compute the monthly consumption on the basis of LHFD formula as mentioned in Annexure 6.3 of the Electricity Supply Code 2005 (including amendments thereof) for the months for which the bill is pending and will raise the bill for such units at normal tariff,” added the notification.

The excess units beyond the units billed on the basis of LHFD formula shall be treated as stored units and shall be billed as stated earlier in this paragraph. The consumers who opt for trust billing shall be flagged in the data base of the central server and will be excluded from the hand held billing data in order to save the billing and meter reading cost and reduce the quantum of billing work of the licensee.

However the licensee shall arrange for checking of meter reading at least once in six months of the meters of consumers who have opted for trust billing.

UPERC has recently made some amendments and additions in the Electricity Supply Code (Seventh Amendment), 2016. (KNN Bureau)