WB power minister urges citizens not to pay exorbitant electricity bills until revised ones are issued

Sovan Deb Chatterjee, West Bengal power minister, has asked consumers in Kolkata and Howrah not to pay the exorbitant electricity bills until the private power utility issues revised bills with a reduced amount for June.

“I would suggest the consumers not to pay the exorbitant electricity bill amount. Officials of the private power utility told me that they would calculate the power consumption for June separately and issue revised bills that would work out to be much less,” said Chatterjee after a meeting with the officials of the power utility on Monday.

Chatterjee himself received an electricity bill amounting to Rs 11,000 in June, which he claimed was exorbitant and abnormal. Lakhs of consumers in Kolkata and Howrah have complained of exorbitant power bills. Some consumers received electricity bills running into lakhs of rupees. The power utility has drawn the harried consumers’ flak and the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government had to intervene.