ISLAMABAD: The businessmen community of the capital protested against the installation of new power meters that run 30-35 percent faster than the old ones and demanded their urgent replacement.
The demand was made during a meeting held at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry auditorium.
Presiding over the meeting, the ICCI chief said that business community had been demanding since long for replacement of new meters as they were running faster while Discos have been denying this stand.
ICCI President Muzzamil Hussain Sabri said the government should order Discos for urgent replacement of all faster meters and ensure standardisation of all power meters to ensure that consumers are billed only for actual consumption of electricity. He said despite prolonged power cuts, consumers are crying against heavy bills.
He maintained that distribution companies had replaced millions of meters in the past couple of years and have reportedly generated about Rs15-16 billion as additional revenue for July 2014 due to massive overbilling. He stressed that government should take strong action against the culprits and also direct Discos to return 35 percent money back to the power consumers to do justice with them. He said government should ask all Discos to upload monthly revenue collection figures on respective websites to ensure transparency.
