Consumer organisation asks Electricity Department to communicate to consumers on refund of excess deposit collected in Coimbatore for new connections

The Coimbatore Consumer Cause has asked the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation (TNPDCL) to communicate clearly to electricity consumers in Coimbatore region details of the refund of excess deposit amount collected from those who sought new service connections till April last year.

K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of the consumer body, said in a communication to the TNPDCL that the ₹2.5 crore of excess deposit amount collected from 2,717 consumers was adjusted in the current consumption charges of the consumers who had sought new connections and paid excess deposit amount.

The deposit amount for single phase connection if the cable is laid underground is ₹7,155 and if it is overhead cable, the charges are ₹2,860. For three phase connection (three KW), the charges for overhead cable is ₹6,135 and for underground cable, it is ₹15,330. The TNPDCL collected the charges for underground cable even in areas where the supply is given through overhead cables.

When this issue was raised, the TNPDCL said the excess amount was collected because of a “system fault” in the headquarters. Based on a complaint filed by the consumer organisation with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission on March 14 last year, the Commission said on April 3 that the extra development charges collected by way of wrong applicability of the UG development charges for the overhead service connections should be refunded to the applicants/consumers immediately or treated as advance current consumption charges paid and reported to the Commission. The application software should be corrected accordingly with immediate effect.

But, the TNERC order was not followed and hence the Coimbatore Consumer Cause took up the issue again with the TNPDCL. The TNPDCL recently said that it was making adjustments in the current consumption charges. But, this had not been communicated to the consumers properly. They were unaware of the reason for the adjustment and had to approach the respective section office to know the details.

While the excess amount should be adjusted for two bill cycles, the remaining amount should be refunded to consumers as the consumers were eligible to claim interest for this amount according to the Supply Code, he said.