The latest electricity bills shock Telangana residents⁠ — delayed readings push consumers into a higher tariff bracket

• The Telangana electricity department has issued a combined bill for the last three months.
• Consumers have claimed that they have received inflated bills.
• The TSSPDCL has denied this and claimed that the bills have increased due to increase in usage.

While the people of Telangana are trying to fight the Coronavirus pandemic, the Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL) has left its customers in a state of shock after issuing inflated electricity bills to its customers across the state.

The nationwide coronavirus lockdown affected several activities and this includes the generation of electricity bills. The TSSPDCL personnel generate bills by going to the customer’s homes for taking meter readings.

The TSSPDCL personnel started taking meter readings after three months in June and the bills have been generated for around 90 days. The bill period includes the months of March, April and May. This has led to generation of inflated bills.

What is the issue?

Customers have received inflated bills as the TSSPDCL has generated the bills for the last three months in one go, without considering the impact on slab brackets.

The electricity board had earlier assured consumers will not be moved into the next tariff bracket as the total electricity usage will be adjusted for the lockdown period.

Here are the various slab brackets for domestic consumers in Telangana –


The current issue is that TSSPDCL has taken the electricity usage of three months and averaged the units to determine the slabs. This has pushed the electricity bill of all three months to the higher bracket.

Consumers complain about inflated bills

The consumers have taken to social media to complain about the inflated bills. Consumers have claimed that they have received bills that are way higher than their usual bill.




TSSPDCL denies claims of inflated bills

The TSSPDCL Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Raghuma Reddy has denied that the consumers have received inflated bills, claiming that the bills are high due to increased usage.

“There is no error in billing. The bill is more because the consumption was more. With the increase in consumption, the slab rate of consumers has also increased. In fact, it happens every year during the summer.” said Reddy.

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