It is almost 18 months now that Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL) has not even responded to the complaint of one of its customers, what to expect of redressing the grievance. The monthly gas bills of domestic consumer no. 73315535909 (meter no. MR 03293333) had not exceeded Rs 3,000 in winter, until November 2006 when the consumer received a bill amounting to Rs 11,250.
The complaint was lodged to SNGPL but to no avail. Bill for December 2006 was further inflated, to Rs 16,510, showing exorbitantly high consumption for a household. This time the staff of utility company did come, who observed leakage and resultantly replaced the old meter (previous meter no. MR 00697808).
This, unfortunately, is not the end of the predicament of the gas consumer. Not only that the over-charged amount was not refunded to him or adjusted, the bill received for January 2007 amounted to Rs 19,970, though provisionally. The utility company staff admitted that it was a mistake and promised that a corrected bill would be sent.
This never happened and the consumer had to deposit the huge amount to avoid gas disconnection. This excess amount was, nonetheless, adjusted in the bills for subsequent months. In spite of repeated requests, on phone as well as in writing, the complaint of not receiving due amounts has not been addressed to by SNGPL till date.
The gas consumer even tried to contact Managing Director SNGPL personally, but the latter would not take the calls. Finally, a fax was sent to him on May 2, 2008 that too remained unanswered.
There has been no refund made by SNGPL for excess payments received against bills for November and December 2006, and it has not allowed premium/discount as permissible under SNGPL rules on advance payments made in January 2007. This is indeed daylight robbery. No wonder the company has made a gross profit of Rs 13,408 million during the 2006-07 financial year.
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