J&K’s electricity billing system under scanner: 13,104 complaints lodged, Rs 9 cr adjusted

Questions mount over addressing root cause

*7,341 complaints in Kashmir, 5,763 in Jammu till Aug

Mohinder Verma

JAMMU, Oct 3: The Government may describe complaints over faulty, disproportionate and exceptionally high electricity bills as a “routine matter”, but the figures on record tell a far more disturbing story. Electricity consumers lodged 13,104 complaints regarding incorrect and disproportionate billing in Financial Year 2026-27 up to August, involving adjustment/refund of a staggering Rs 9 crore, while 2,170 cases were still pending.

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The data reveals the sheer scale of billing and metering-related grievances across electricity divisions of Kashmir and Jammu regions. The Government’s contention that such complaints are routinely checked and corrected is being tested against thousands of cases being reported by consumers.

The Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) recorded 7,341 billing and metering complaints during Financial Year 2026-27. The amount rectified/adjusted in these cases stood at Rs 6,17,81,556 while 1,748 cases remained pending.

The situation is hardly different in the Jammu region. During FY 2026-27 up to August, the 12 electricity divisions recorded 5,763 complaints concerning incorrect/disproportionate electricity bills. An amount of Rs 3,01,26,339 was refunded/adjusted, while 422 cases remained pending.

The scale becomes even more significant when viewed against Financial Year 2025-26, when these Jammu divisions together recorded 18,532 complaints, comprising 10,583 cases due to incorrect meters, 766 due to faulty meters and 7,183 due to billing errors. A total Rs 5,56,26,043 was refunded/adjusted, while 253 cases were pending. Similarly, Electricity Divisions in Kashmir recorded 3951 complaints and an amount of Rs 1,32,21,853 was refunded/adjusted during the Financial Year 2025-26.

Taken together, the two regions reported 22,483 complaints in FY 2025-26, followed by another 13,104 complaints in FY 2026-27 up to August. The amounts refunded or adjusted stood at approximately Rs 6.88 crore in FY 2025-26 and Rs 9.19 crore in the current financial year up to August.

The numbers therefore raise a pointed question over the description of such complaints as merely “routine matters”. When thousands of consumers are repeatedly approaching electricity authorities over wrong readings, faulty meters and billing errors—and crores of rupees have to be refunded or adjusted—the issue clearly represents a substantial consumer-service challenge rather than a handful of isolated billing corrections.

And with 2,170 complaints still pending in the current financial year, the assertion that complaints are dealt with after proper check and verification in a time bound manner leaves unanswered the more important question—-why are so many consumers having to complain in the first place, and why does the system continue to generate such a large volume of billing grievances?

“The recurrence of thousands of metering and billing complaints year after year raises a fundamental question about the effectiveness of the corrective mechanisms being followed by the two Distribution Companies”, sources said, adding “the numbers indicate that the problem is not confined to isolated instances or individual consumers; rather, similar categories of complaints continue to surface in substantial numbers”.

Notwithstanding the Government statement that complaints relating to faulty, disproportionate or exceptionally high bills are received through Sub-Divisions, IT&C divisions and other complaint channels and that such cases are subjected to verification before corrections are made in the billing system, the repeated appearance of wrong readings, incorrect-meter complaints, faulty-meter cases and billing errors raises questions about whether the corrective process is addressing the underlying causes or merely rectifying individual bills after consumers lodge complaints, they further said.

“If the same types of errors continue to be reported in large numbers despite verification and correction mechanisms being in place, the Distribution Companies may need to examine whether there are weaknesses in meter reading, data entry, meter maintenance, consumer indexing, billing software, field verification or supervisory checks”, sources stressed.

They further said that a detailed audit of the recurring error categories, division-wise patterns, meters generating repeated complaints and the time taken to resolve cases could establish why the same deficiencies continue to reappear and whether systemic corrections are actually reducing the flow of complaints.