In his complaint, Jain has raised several points against the developer of Prateek Realtors India Pvt Ltd and its maintenance agency Prateek Infratech India Pvt Ltd.
In a complaint made to the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) of Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (PVVNL), Chakresh Jain, a resident of Prateek Wisteria in Noida's sector 77, has alleged that the developer of the society has been violating UPERC and PVVNL tariff order.
He said that the developer has embezzled approximately Rs 10 crore from the residents through electricity bills since 2014.
In his complaint, Jain has raised several points against the developer of Prateek Realtors India Pvt Ltd and its maintenance agency Prateek Infratech India Pvt Ltd, who is responsible to distribute electricity bought from PVVNL in the society.
Prateek Wisteria, a residential society with 1,800 flats and 16 commercial shops gets its electricity through a single-point connection. The residents use electricity through pre-paid meters.
He said that since the last 4.5 years, the promoter has been collecting a huge sum of money illegally from the residents and in spite of several complaints and letters, there is no response from the developer to refund the customer’s money which was overcharged from them.
“In the year 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19, the developer has failed to abide by the rules of UPERC and PVVNL, as he didn’t give a 1.25 per cent rebate in the monthly electricity bill to any 1,816 prepaid meter consumers of the society,” Jain alleged.
He further added that the developer not even once carried out the mandatory half-yearly audit of the electricity billing through prepaid meters and the actual amount paid to PVVNL in the single-point connection.
“No audit document was submitted either to PVVNL or the flat owners”, Jain said.
“The builder overcharged the consumers on applicable electricity tariff, grid electricity fixed charges in the name of ‘DG fixed charge’ and also took GST and other service charges which he is not returning now,” Jain added.
Jain further told CitySpidey that DG sets are not the developer's property and hence the charge for DG can only be collected as a ‘sinking fund charge.’
A sinking fund is a long-term saving account that the home-owners contribute every month through service charges. This builds up every year and should pay for any major works that are required over a period of time - such as the painting of common areas.
Based on the bills received from PVVNL and few individual consumers, a gap of 10-20 per cent was seen as to what was taken from the flat owners and what was being paid to PVVNL, Jain clearly mentioned in his complaint.
He also said that the grid charges collected from the residents was 300 per cent more than what was being paid to PVVNL.
Jain said that as per his calculation of the past 54 months, the developer should refund energy charges of Rs 4.25 crore, grid fixed charges of Rs 4 crore and DG fixed charges of Rs 1.75 crore plus interest at the rate of 18 per cent of Rs 3 crore.
Notably the complaint was made on March 18, 2019 by the complainant who had asked the developer to provide all the bills from October 1, 2014 to March 31, 2019 but till date, no revert on the matter has been initiated from the developer's end.
Talking to CitySpidey, Jain said that the developer had raised an objection in order to dismiss his application but his objection was dismissed by the CGRF PVVNL court.
