Power consumers allege that they are burdened by penalty

Mysore/Mysuru: Power consumers of the city, who were shocked by the recent hike in power tariffs, are now astonished by the fact that CESC has started to impose penalty on consumers who consume more power than their sanctioned capacity.

Several Domestic consumers have accused CESC of imposing irrational penalty on those who consume power more than the sanctioned capacity.

In one such case, a domestic consumer, who was classified as 3 LT2A 1-N category with sanction capacity of 1 KW+OHP, was penalised Rs. 286.88 for using more than the stipulated 58 Units of power in a month. Though the actual bill for power consumption amounts to only about Rs. 320, the CESC has issued a bill for Rs. 608.52, which includes a penalty of Rs. 286.88 for higher power consumption beyond the sanctioned limit.

Clarifying on the accusation, CESC Executive Engineer Nagesh said that the bill amount gets naturally higher when  power is consumed beyond sanctioned capacity.

He pointed out that the charges for excess consumption will be printed in the penalty column for want of space.

Asserting that printing of excess charges in the penalty column is not actually penalty, Nagesh said that consumers must understand that this is the charges levied only for excess consumption.

He asked domestic power consumers to keep a constant watch on their monthly power consumption and ensure that it does not cross the sanctioned limit. He further said that consumers can seek a raise in capacity if their power consumption cross the existent limit for months together.