Residents of Karachi may want to check their household electricity bills to determine whether they were ‘illegally’ overbilled by K Electric for the month of July.
A Geo.tv investigation has found that the electricity utility seemingly violated the terms and conditions of tariff set by the national regulator by charging customers for 32 days during the month of July, instead of the maximum 30 days allowed.
National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) officials who spoke to this correspondent described the move as ‘illegal’ and said K-Electric will need to provide an explanation for why it violated its agreement with the regulator.
It is not fully clear how many individuals were affected, but bills shared with Geo.tv by residents of Gulshan, Korangi, Defence, Scheme 33 and North Nazimabad in Karachi suggest that 32-day billing was done in multiple areas of the city.
K Electric customers can determine if they were issued an ‘illegal’ bill by comparing the meter reading dates (provided on their bills on page 2, top right of the first column) for the last two months. If the number of days exceeds 30, you may be eligible to lodge a complaint with NEPRA regarding the matter.
K Electric bill showing meter reading dates of June 12 and July 14, suggesting that 32 days billing has been done in Scheme 33.
K Electric bill showing meter reading dates of June 03 and July 05, suggesting that 32 days billing has been done in Korangi.
K Electric bill showing meter reading dates of June 10 and July 12, suggesting that 32 days billing has been done in North Nazimabad.
The overbilling by the electricity utility was done without sanction from the power regulator and will have, in the worst cases, added thousands of rupees to customers’ bills for July.
Residential consumers who are billed according to tariff slabs (single phase meter) are likely to have been the most affected, because their bills are particularly sensitive to the number of days they are charged on (more on this later). In particular, single phase meter customers who received bills for between 701-747 units may have been charged around Rs4,000 in excess of what they should have paid.
Given K Electric’s around 2 million residential customers, it is estimated that the overbilling netted hundreds of millions of rupees (Rs10 million = Rs1 crore) in additional revenue for the utility for the period in question.
Geo.tv has provided an easy calculator for K Electric customers who are billed on single phase meter slab tariff. It can be used to calculate how much these customers were overbilled. This particular calculator is only intended for use by K Electric customers who are billed according to tariff slabs. A calculator for those billed according to peak and off-peak tariff is provided further below.https://jang.com.pk/sites/iframes/electricity_charges.html
Calculator for customers on peak, off-peak billing/three phase meter tariff is provided here.
https://jang.com.pk/sites/iframes/meter_tariff.html
While the impact of even a few hundred rupees on individual bills may seem like a negligible amount, it is worth mentioning again that K Electric has a total 2.5 million customers, majority of whom are residential users. The multiplier effect would therefore suggest hundreds of millions of rupees netted in additional revenue by K Electric from the citizens of Karachi.
K Electric has so far failed to provide any explanation or legal reasoning for its decision to flout an important rule set by the power regulator.
Multiple attempts to seek an official explanation through the company’s public relations firm have yet to be responded to. A written request seeking answers from the company submitted by this respondent has similarly gone unattended.
What we discovered
According to copies of bills for the months of June and July shared with us by K Electric consumers residing in different parts of the city, the power company calculated customers’ bills for the month of July using a billing period of 32 days.
This was determined by comparing the Meter Reading Date provided on the bills for
Abuzaid 