Despite directions from the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC), the long-standing demand of the city’s power consumers for monthly instead of bi-monthly billing is unlikely to be met any time soon.
Admitting to slow pace of the conversion, the UT electricity department, in its submission with JERC, has blamed staff shortage and software issues as major roadblocks. At present, more than 85% consumers (domestic and commercial) in Chandigarh are billed on bi-monthly basis.
“The conversion of meter reading from bi-monthly to monthly is slow due to acute shortage of staff. Further, the software also needs to be updated for monthly billing,” the department has submitted in its annual plan with the JERC.
