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ANDHRA PRADESH ELECTRICITY REGULATORY COMMISSION |
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CONSUMERS' RIGHTS STATEMENT |
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The Consumer Rights Statement tells the consumers what service they can expect from the Licensee. It also tells the consumers what they need to do in order to help the service provider to supply quality service. Right to know: 1. Consumers have a right to know.
1.1 The procedure for providing new connection. 2. Procedure for providing new connection. The Licensee must follow the procedures as prescribed in APTRANSCO's Code on conditions of supply and procedures till they are revised. For getting this service from the Licensee, the prospective consumers must follow the correct procedure as laid down in the above code. All intending consumers are eligible for supply of electricity within the prescribed time and on payment of prescribed fees. Eligibility criteria shall be transparent and made known to the applicant. The applicant shall have the right to be informed about the reasons for rejection, personal hearing appeal and for removal of deficiencies. All persons applying for service will be provided the application form for supply and procedures, free of cost. The new consumers will also be provided with the complaint handling procedures, code of practice on payment of bills and the consumer rights statement free of cost. Copies of the above documents will also be made available to consumers and others at a price not exceeding the reasonable cost of duplication. 3. Information prior to the disconnection and procedure of reconnection. The Licensee must follow the Regulation on Consumer's Rights to Information and the consumer shall be provided with prescribed minimum period of notice before disconnection under normal circumstances. Before disconnecting service, the Licensee's employee performing the disconnection must inform the person occupying the premises. If proof of full payment is produced to the satisfaction of licensee's employee deputed for disconnection, he shall not disconnect it. If there is no adult, the employee shall deliver a note which contains information as to the reason for disconnection and how reconnection can be obtained. The Licensee is exempted from the notice requirements in the cases where the consumer's installation poses a danger to the health or safety of the consumers or Licensee's employees or the public, and where the consumer is indulging in illegal abstraction of energy by tampering the meter or bypassing the meter or unauthorisedly restoring supply after disconnection. In all such cases, the disconnection of the service by the Licensee will be carried out without any notice. The Licensee's will restore service promptly when the cause of the disconnection has been removed by the consumer and after obtaining the reconnection order by paying the amounts due. 4. Licensee's Standards of Performance. The Licensee is obliged to maintain the minimum standards of performance for consumers as prescribed by APERC under the Regulations on "Consumer's Right to Information" and "Standards of Performance". 5. Code of practice on payment of bills. The Licensee has to follow the procedure consistently as per the code of practice on payment of bills approved by the Commission on matters relating to payment of electricity charges and provide appropriate assistance to consumers who may have difficulty in paying bills. Bills have to contain due date of payment, place of payment, acceptable modes of payment Tariffs applicable and designation and address of officers to whom the consumer can complain about billing. The Licensee is required to keep accurate account of all charges billed to each consumer and must maintain information from which bills may be readily computed. 6. Complaint Handling Procedure. The Licensee has to follow consistently its established procedure for handling complaints from consumers. The Licensee shall inform all its consumers of how they may go about submitting a complaint to the Licensee and how the Licensee will process complaints. The consumer has also to be informed of the remedy available when the complaint is not disposed of satisfactorily or within reasonable period as set out in the consumer complaint handling procedure approved by APERC. 7. Tariff. Consumers have a right to obtain copies of the Tariff schedule on payment of charges not exceeding the reasonable cost of duplication. A copy of the said schedule shall be prominently displayed in all offices of the Licensee dealing with commercial aspects. 8. Notice of Outages. The Licensee shall provide notice to all affected consumers prior to a scheduled outage as per the norms stipulated under paras 9, 10 and 11 of APERC's Regulation No.7, on "Consumer's Right to Information". 9. Entry into consumer's premises. Consumers have a right to be informed prior to the entry into their premises by the Licensee for any prescribed purpose. On all such occasions the consumer shall not prevent the Licensee's representative from entry into the consumer's premises. Refusal to allow entry or to allow the Licensee's representative to perform his authorised act will cause disconnection of service as detailed under paras (5) & (6) of APERC's Regulation No.7 on "Consumer's Right to Information". 10. Meter. The Licensee has the responsibility to provide standard meters. It should be periodically inspected by the Licensee and replaced / repaired whenever the meter is found defective within the time limit prescribed in the complaint handling procedure document. The Licensee reads meters, as far as possible in the presence of consumers and notes the readings in the meter cards / pass book maintained by licensee in the consumer's premises. 11. General i)
The Licensee shall make 'Consumer Rights Statement' available for inspection
by members of the public at his corporate Office, Circle Offices Divisional
Offices, Sub-Divisional Section Offices and Revenue Offices. "This Statement was approved by APERC on dated 17.10.2002" Hyderabad Secretary
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