Ghost electricity bills: Govt has taken corrective measures, Nasrul Hamid tells JS

State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid today told the parliament that the government has taken six measures to collect the due electricity bills through a quick correction of the inflated power bills.

The junior minister came up with the information in reply to a query from Awami League MP from Chattogram-3 Mahfuzur Rahman during question-answer session in parliament.

In a scripted answer, Nasrul Hamid said the government had declared a nationwide closure from March 26 to prevent spread of coronavirus infection.

Considering the inconvenience, residential customers were given the opportunity to pay their electricity bills for February, March, April and May by June 30 without any surcharge, he said.

As a result, most of the customers have not paid their bills, which has created a huge amount of arrears.

Nasrul Hamid said that the steps taken to collect the bills are: not to prepare bill of additional units after accumulating units of several months; making individual electricity bills on a monthly basis; not charging higher tariffs by preparing bills of additional units; taking measures to correct the inflated bills; properly preparing the electricity bill for the month of May (which is being prepared in June) after going through the meter reading; and creating scope to pay the electricity bill through mobile, bKash, G-Pay, RobiCash and online.