Address clients’ harassment over electricity bill

The suffering of around 10,000 people at Baghmara in Rajshahi due to a mistake of the Rural Electrification Board (REB) is very regrettable.

Negligence in public services gets a renewned focus over this incident.

According to a Prothom Alo report published on Saturday, around 10,000 clients despite paying their bill for the month of July were sent the bill again with additional fine along with the bill of September.

Some of the clients have got the problem sorted out coming to the regional office, but after much harassment.

They also alleged that the officials of the billing section misbehaved with them when they wanted to talk about the problems. Many also had paid the extra bill as they did not understand the process.

The customers said the REB drafted the bill carelesslessly and just forwarded it to them.

The mistake was of the board, but the cost had to be paid by 10,000 people. 

This is not new. Consumers often face such ghostly, false bills.

The billing officials draft the bills sitting in the office without visiting the spot. Many also complain going to the concerned office, but the problem does not always get solved.

Is not there any solution to this?

The government has set up pre-paid metres to abate system loss and false billing, yet many problems still persist.

Delay in availing connection, and taking time to solve meter malfunctions, long queue for the recharge, and corruption during setting up new metres in place of old ones along with frequent allegations of charging extra VAT are among the problems.

Prepaid metres have been set up, but the recharge process has not been made user-friendly.

Recharging the prepaid card should be an easy process like topping up the balance of mobile phone.

The government must act immediately to bring order in this sector.