Residents had spoken out against the malpractices employed by the builder on the complaint forum of NPCL in March. But little seems to move.
The builder of Panchsheel Green, a residential society in Noida Extension, has been rampantly flouting norms laid out by the Noida Power Company Limited (NPCL), residents had complained at an online complaint forum of the power discom in March.
But concrete steps are yet to be taken.
An official with NPCL said, “We had sent a notice to the builder to submit a reply on all thecopmplaints and also the audit report of the last six months within the next 15 days. The builder sent some clarification hurriedly, and we were not happy with the answers. We told the developer to submit a reply again, along with the audit report, on April 17.”
Residents had alleged that the builder has taken the single-point connection for residential use of 1,500 kVA capacity, though it is being used for residential, commercial as well as common areas. The builder is paying for 1,500 kVA to the discom, while it is charging for around 4,000 kVA.
Vikas Kumar, who had made the complaint, wrote that the builder has been over-charging for fixed meters, making money out of hapless residents. He explained, “The monthly fixed charge is Rs 95,625 for residential, commercial and common areas. When a 5 per cent electricity duty and a 8 per cent surcharge is added to it, it becomes Rs 1,08,057.”
He continued, “Now, as per maintenance department of the society, there are around 900 meters installed and minimum load of 4 KW per meter. So, we are paying 900 (no of flats) x 4 KW x Rs 110 (fixed charge), which comes to around Rs 3,96,000 (around Rs 4 lakhs) as monthly fixed charges for residential area only. No fixed charge has been calculated from commercial or common area. But the difference is huge! When we should be paying Rs 1,08,057, we are paying nearly Rs 4 lakh. We need clarity on actual bifurcation of fixed charges used in all the three areas.”
There’s more grouse.
“As per our society electricity bill, builder is paying Rs 4.95 as unit price (excluding electricity duty and surcharge), which becomes Rs 5.60 after a 5 per cent electricity duty and 8 per cent surcharge is added. The residents are, however, paying Rs 6.50 as unit price. In other societies, it is way less,” Kumar added.
But, according to norms, a housing society or a builder can only charge up to 5 per cent extra on the power bill to recover expenses for facilitating the supply of electricity to individual flat owners, maintenance, accounting and audit, and other miscellaneous purposes.
According to NPCL guidelines, the builder must provide monthly electricity bills to all consumers with details of electricity charges, including the fixed and additional charges. Each society also has to submit a half-yearly statement to NPCL on energy consumed by individual consumers and rates charged.
But, residents claim, Panchsheel Green builder has not been submitting the audit report for the last two years -- nor has it followed any of the norms.
