2024-07-11 17:46:54
Due to confusion, a member of the committee appeared in the meeting of the parliamentary committee with an electricity meter. Even if there is no electricity connection, the red light on the meter lights up. However, the power ministry claimed in the meeting that this could be due to technical error, but the customer will not be billed extra.
On Thursday (July 11) afternoon, a meeting of the Standing Committee related to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources was held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhawan. Committee member (Member of Parliament for Sirajganj-1 Constituency) Tanvir Shakeel Joy presented an electricity meter in that meeting.
After the meeting, Tanveer Shakeel said that some customers of his constituency complained that the red light on the meter lights up even if there is no electricity connection. There has been confusion about this. For this reason, he presented such a meter as a sample in the meeting. The Ministry has taken the matter seriously. According to the ministry and Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (REB), this may happen due to technical errors. But there will be no additional bill. The committee asked to scrutinize this matter and report it in the next meeting. The ministry has also been asked to take measures so that confusion does not spread about it. If due to fault the lamp is on but the bill is not raised, it should be informed to the customers.
According to the concerned sources, the electricity meter error and ghostly bills were discussed in the meeting. Several members said they have received complaints that many customers are getting higher electricity bills than usual. In many cases customers are harassed to rectify this. In the meeting, the ministry informed that now there are more than three and a half crore electricity meters across the country. Out of this, about five lakh meters have faults. Apart from this, load shedding was also discussed in the meeting. The ministry said that the situation will be normal soon.
After the meeting, a press release of the Parliament Secretariat informed that the committee has recommended to gain customer’s trust in prepaid electricity meters and to look into whether low-quality meters have been purchased or not. Apart from this, the committee highlighted the problems existing between the Palli Vidyut Samiti and the Board and stressed the importance of finding a sustainable solution in the meeting.
Ghostly electricity bills are nothing new. But recently this complaint has increased. On June 20, in response to a question in the National Parliament, Minister of State for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that due to technical and non-technical errors, ghost bills can sometimes happen. Various steps have been taken to ensure that the electricity bill is appropriate.
In the meeting, the situation of electricity import from India, Nepal, Bhutan, future planning of source based electricity generation from renewable energy was reviewed and implementation strategy was reviewed. It is recommended to the Ministry to increase power generation by using environmentally friendly alternative means, including renewable energy. The Committee emphasized on identifying the problems existing between the Rural Electricity Societies and the Board for sustainable solutions.
President of the parliamentary committee in the meeting. Chaired by Ziaur Rahman, member of the committee. Abu Zahir, Tanveer Shakeel, Salim Mahmud, Abdur Rauf, Md. Omar Farooq and Kanan Ara Begum participated.