Multan consumers, whose electricity metres are burnt in rain or turned defective, are being fleeced by power authorities on the basis of flawed billing formula that favours the company at the cost of consumers' wallet. Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) is short of electricity metres and has not been able to replace defective meters in a number of cases.
The fault lies with the supplier and not the ill-fated consumer, who are paying the price of using the essential daily utility. Pepco rules state that a consumer with a defective electric metre would be charged for electricity consumed in the corresponding period of the same month a year ago or the average consumption of the past 11 months, whichever is higher. This rule benefits Pepco of an advantage in the sense that if consumption in a particular month is higher, then the consumer will be charged the higher amount.
During summer, a consumer would be charged for the same number of units consumed a year ago. However during winter, the consumption would be below the yearly average and in this case the average of 11month consumption would be applicable. This rule, though in favour of supplier, was tolerable when the power supply by the distribution companies lasted round the clock. However, it enables Pepco to pocket a lot of money when the duration of power outages ranges between 8-12 hours.
Therefore, the consumer has to pay more money even though it is not their responsibility if new metres were not available. The billing disregards or fails to consider any power saving measures consumers could have adopted. A reasonable solution in this regard is that until metres are replaced, the number of hours of load shedding should be deducted from bills sent to such consumers.