Ministry Holds Virtual Meeting with PLN Customers over Bill Surge
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14 June 2020 10:46 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment held a virtual hearing on Friday, June 12, with customers of state electricity company PLN in connection with complaints over their inflated bills.
“I would like to know from people, who felt the burden of the electricity bill that unreasonably increased,” Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, an official of energy affairs at the ministry, noted in a statement received on Saturday.
The ministry opened a complaint channel through email on pengaduanenergi@maritim.go.id that has received some 234 complaint files from June 9 to 11.
Anggana, one of the participants at the hearing, was taken aback at a significant hike in the electricity bill by this month, as he was staying at home since January amid the pandemic situation.
“Our electricity usage was quite normal. My family has begun spending more time at home since January, and thereafter, we have had no significant activities (that consumed more electricity). However, there is an increase of some 23-51 percent in the June bill,” he pointed out.
Sabda Tuah, another participant, expressed discontent and objection to receiving a hefty bill despite his house remaining unoccupied during that period.
“I have a newly build home in Pekanbaru where electricity installation was recently conducted, and we have not yet resided in it. However, we had received a bill of some Rp1.5 million (around US$106),” he expounded.
Akin to the spike in the bill for electricity consumption in households, some workshops too encountered the same issue.
Laela Indawati’s automotive repair shop received an electricity bill of some Rp559,000 (around US$40) in June, rising from some Rp100,000-Rp150,000 (around US$10) in the regular monthly bill. This baffled her, as the workshop had been shut down during the enactment of Large-Scale Social Distancing (PSBB) measures.
“Please give us one to two days to work on this grievance by checking with PLN. For now, we could not say anything before rechecking the data. We will conduct a thorough examination and be neutral,” Sadewa explained.
ANTARA
