AEML waives interest for customers opting for EMI payment of bills

Mumbai: Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd (AEML) on Thursday said it has waived interest on EMIs for consumers who have opted for the facility to make payment of their electricity bills. The company had offered EMI facility for three months to consumers to make payment of their bills for the month of June, as the amount was significantly higher.

Recently, in a conference call, the company had said that it is allowing EMI facility at a rate of 9.9 per cent interest as per the guidelines of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC).

However, on Thursday, the company said it will offer three interest free installments.

"To support consumers in the prevailing pandemic circumstances, we have allowed three interest free installments to all our consumers paying their bills within the due date. We are thankful to MERC for their proactive guidance to the distribution utilities to handle the current situation," AEML Managing director and CEO Kandarp Patel said in a statement.

The company had earlier said that it was able to recover overdues from 3.3 lakh consumers out of 7.5 lakh consumers as of June 30.

At the beginning of April, its overdues stood at Rs 225 crore, which rose to Rs 830 crore by June. This has now reduced to Rs 750 crore, Patel had said.

The recent tariff reduction of about 18 per cent announced by MERC, effective from April 1 this year, has yielded significant relief to the consumers, he had said.

AEML, which distributes power to around 30 lakh consumers from Bandra to Bhayandar and Kurla to Mankhurd, had received nearly 48,000 complaints of inflated electricity bills, of which it claimed to have resolved nearly 96 per cent.