Patna, Jan. 17: Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) claims to have started furnishing details of fuel surcharge in electricity bills in the capital since last December, but consumers do not agree.

Pesu has 3.25 lakh consumers spread across 10 divisions of the state capital. Billing through hand-held billing machines (HBMs) has already been implemented in eight divisions, catering to about 2.75 lakh consumers.

The bills generated through HBMs, similar to grocery bills, do not carry details such as tariff rates in various slabs, months and units for which fuel surcharge is being taken from consumers. The bills do not have any mention of meter rent, interest charge, surcharge rate in the event of bill payment delay and different tariff rates depending on load capacity among other things.

Pesu claims that it has already started distributing electricity bills furnishing details of fuel surcharge and would start giving detailed electricity bills from April this year.

Consumers are, however, clueless because the bills that they receive do not have such details. They do not even incorporate details of fuel surcharge. “We have already started distributing electricity bills, giving details of fuel surcharge in the electricity bills. Pesu has started distributing bills with details of fuel surcharge from December last year. We will start distributing detailed bills from April once we receive a new set of HBMs, which would be 1.25 times the size of the current one,” Pesu general manager-cum-chief engineer SKP Singh told The Telegraph.

On why Pesu cannot provide detailed bills through existing HBMs, Singh said the machines generated vertical-shaped bills that do not have enough space. “But once the new HBMs reach us, this problem will be sorted out,” he added.

However, the consumers are not convinced. “On January 11, I received a bill of Rs 2,300. Of the total amount, Rs 1,100 was accounted for fuel surcharge. But the bill did not have any detail like which month they have charged me for. We are just paying any sort of bill on account of fuel surcharge. Our connection would be snapped if we stop payment in protest,” Kundan Kumar, a resident of Kesri Nagar, said.

“Pesu must give detailed bills. Fuel surcharge has become a nagging problem for consumers and hence, it should at least provide details of fuel surcharge. The electricity board has kept consumers completely in the dark,” Ajay Prasad, a Digha resident said.