Chandigarh: As many as 9,257 billing-related complaints were registered and resolved in Chandigarh during 2025-26, the Union ministry of power has informed. However, Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari has criticised the Centre’s response to his queries on the impact of power distribution privatisation in the city, describing it as “evasive”.Tewari had sought detailed information on whether average consumer electricity bills had increased after privatisation, including category-wise average monthly bills before and after the change, along with details of smart meters, a post-privatisation impact assessment and complaints relating to billing discrepancies, inflated charges, fuel cost adjustments and slab restructuring.Reacting to the reply, Tewari said, “Look how detailed the question is and how evasive the answer is that it elevates obfuscation to an absolute fine art.” He said the response did not answer the central issue of whether electricity bills of ordinary consumers had increased after privatisation.The govt said tariffs in Chandigarh are determined by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) and that revised category-wise tariffs for FY 2025-26 to FY 2029-30 came into effect from Nov 1, 2025. However, the response did not provide the requested category-wise comparison of average monthly bills before and after privatisation.The response said Chandigarh Power Distribution Limited (CPDL) had registered and resolved 9,257 billing-related complaints during FY 2025-26 through its CRM system. Consumers dissatisfied with the resolution can approach the Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum and subsequently the Electricity Ombudsman.On smart meters, the government said 3,300 additional smart meters had been installed after privatisation, taking the total number of smart meters to 27,100 across various categories. Of these, 2,037 were installed for “other consumers”, while 204 were installed for industrial consumers.Tewari, however, said the figures were significant because, according to him, people in Chandigarh are aware that smart meters are optional and not compulsory, which he said explains why only 2,037 smart meters had been installed for other consumers after privatisation.The government also did not provide details of any formal post-privatisation study or impact assessment comparing pre- and post-privatisation tariffs, billing accuracy and operational efficiency, despite these issues being specifically raised in Tewari’s question.The smart-meter rollout is still underway in several categories. The government has set Sept 2026 as the target for industrial consumers, December 2026 for distribution transformer meters and December 2028 for other consumers.
