No meter rent for domestic consumers: Senthilbalaji

CHENNAI: Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji on Monday clarified that meter rent for fixing smart meters would not be collected from domestic consumers.

“Social media is abuzz with the news of meter rent to be collected from consumers. I want to assure you that meter rent for smart meters would not be collected from the domestic consumers, ” he said, after inaugurating the ring main units at Saidapet.

The ministers' clarification comes after the Tangedco filed a miscellaneous petition in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission stating that it would collect meter rent for the three-phase high-cost smart meters already installed and to be installed.

Sources said that following a lot of misinformation in social media, Tangedco has made changes in the miscellaneous petition to exclude domestic services from paying meter rent for the smart meters.

On the DMK’s poll promise of monthly billing, Senthilbalaji said that Tangedco is in the process of installing meters from the generation point to the consumer end to reduce the line loss. “At present, the Tangedco faces a line loss of 17 per cent. If we reduce line loss by one per cent, we will save Rs 800 crore, ” he said, adding that after installing smart meters at homes, the monthly billing would be implemented as per the DMK poll promise.

The State government would be paying an additional subsidy of Rs 3500 crore following the tariff revision, the minister said, adding that the government paid a subsidy of Rs 9,048 crore subsidy last year. “After the tariff revision, the government will pay a subsidy of Rs 12,500 crore, ” he added.