Each year K-Electric earns millions by charging owners of vacant houses meter rent and fixed charges. Even if you consumed no unit in a year you will be charged around Rs. 3,500 in a year.
KE charges at least Rs. 300 each month, even if you haven’t consumed any unit. From this amount more than 36% of this amount (Rs. 108) is of government taxes which include:general sales tax, 2% further GST, GST on retailers, duty and TV License fee. Break up of the bill is as follows:
Fixed Charge | Rs. 175 |
Meter Rent | Rs. 7.5 |
Electricity Duty | Rs. 3.5 |
General Sales Tax | Rs. 31.62 |
2% further GST | Rs. 3.72 |
GST on retailers | Rs. 9.3 |
TVL fee | Rs. 60 |
Bank Charges | Rs. 8 |
Total | Rs. 298.64 |
More than 61% of Rs. 300 bill is earned by KE without providing any service or electricity consumption. This amount is almost Rs. 182 for a month and for a year it becomes Rs. 2190, this is the amount which owner of a vacant house pays for not consuming electricity.
Consumers are also charged Rs. 8 against Bank charges. To summarize the whole process, if you don’t consume electricity, KE will still charge you for the no-service, government will then impose tax on the service which you never received and you will be asked to pay bank charges to pay the bill for the service you never got.
The question is why should a consumer be liable to pay for electricity which he never consumes? Why should he pay for services he never received?
Here is a copy of a bill which is charged to consumer last month despite the fact that no units were used: