A resident of Srinivasa Nagar in Hyderabad's Boduppal area was shocked earlier this week, when she received an electricity bill amounting to Rs 3.8 lakh for the period from May 10 to June 9.

The domestic power consumer, D Swarupa, received a bill which claimed that 40,059 units of power had been consumed, for which the charge was Rs 3,79,087 along with another Rs 2,403 for electricity duty.

Customer charges of Rs 80 were also added, which brought the total figure close to Rs 4 lakh. The consumer was asked to pay the bill by June 24.

Even as the image of the bill began doing the rounds on social media, officials acted on the customer's complaint and detected that an error led to the exorbitant amount in the bill.  

A new bill was generated based on the actual usage of the customer and it came up to only Rs 134, for the consumption of 63 units, according to media reports. 

Officials suspected that the number of units might have been entered with an extra digit, which eventually led to the high amount.

A Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL) official told DC, “We suspect the error happened because the person who went to check the meter reading entered five digits instead of four digits. However, without automatic electronic check in the EBS i.e. energy billing system, it will be rectified when it appears online and can be paid online.”

TSSPDCL officials also told media outlets that it was impossible for such a high bill to be generated for a domestic consumer.

While such errors are rare, they are not unheard of. In August last year, the Hyderabad District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum-III directed the TSSPDCL to pay Rs 1 lakh to a consumer in Patancheru after he received an inflated power bill for Rs.1.27 lakh against the actual amount of Rs. 572.