RM10,000 electricity bill shock

The Sun,
Tuesday, 07 June 2011 10:15

Petaling Jaya, Jun 6 - Power tariffs may have increased for most households, but to be slapped with a RM10,000 bill blamed on a tampered meter was too much to bear.

Lee Siow Eng, 45, had a shock when he received the bill after being accused of tampering with the meter.

He said a Tenaga Nasional (TNB) officer had inspected his Sungai Way home where his mother, Lem Chan, 77, lives after his father's death. The officer inspected the meter on Oct 7 last year and replaced it. Three months later, the first notice (addressed to his father, Lee Kow) showed RM10,684.56.

TNB said its officers had proof that the old meter was tampered with, and as such, was inaccurate. On May 23, TNB sent a final notice demanding payment or it would cut supply.

Lee approached Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San for help.

At a press conference today, Lau said he wrote to TNB on May 6, inviting its officers to discuss the charges but there was no reply. "TNB does not explain how it came to that amount nor provided proof that the meter had been meddled with," said Lau.

"It is not proper to send the final notice to Lee while ignoring my letter to discuss the charges. We want TNB to be transparent as to how it came to that amount," he said, adding that the meter could have been faulty.

"Imagine any one of us who has probably not touched the meter in 10 years, for example. How will we know if a meter was broken, or someone messed with it?" he asked.

An officer from the TNB branch here, who is handling Lee's case, said Lee had been invited to discuss the charges. "The complainant did not contact us at all," she said when contacted, adding that she did not receive Lau's letter.

She said that power usage at Lee's house dropped sharply in 2005. The RM10,684.56 bill was based on the difference between the average usage in 2005 and after the meter was changed (this year).

Asked why the meter was not checked earlier, she said she did not know. TNB's corporate communications department had not provided a response at press time.