A Delegation along with Farooqbhai Akbani, Vice President of Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce (NVCC) and Convener of Electricity Committee met the Energy Minister Nitin Raut and Chief Engineer of MSEDCL Dilip Dodke and handed over a memorandum mentioning the problems being faced by traders and general public due to the rules of paying the electricity bills of more than Rs 5,000 through cheque or online payment.
In the meeting, Akbani apprised Dodke about the problems being faced due to the new rules for paying electricity bills online or by cheque. He said that electricity consumers are facing a lot of trouble in making timely payment of bills due to this new rule.
He said that the electricity department was accepting the payment of bills in cash. At present, if a customer pays by check after the last date of paying the bill, then the electricity department does not restart the electricity of that customer till the cheque is cleared, which causes problems to the general public.
Due to this rule of cheque or online payment and financial problems, most of the customers are not able to pay their electricity bill on time due to which the electricity department also does not get the payment on time, the Vice-President of NVCC added.
Akbani suggested that the electricity department should raise the cheque or online payment rule from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 which should be accepted in cash. This will help small electricity consumers to pay their electricity bills on time without any hassle and will not cause any financial loss to the electricity department. Taking cognisance of this problem of electricity bills at the earliest, it should be e redressed and relief should be giv en to the general public.
Gajanand Gupta, Salim Ajani and the Chamber’s members were present in the meeting.
