Public infuriated over hike in electricity bills
RaajjeMV was unable to attain a comment from FENAKA at the time of publishing
FENAKA office building in Magoodhoo island
Residents of outlying atolls have begun flooding social media with criticism over the recent hike in electricity bills.
FENAKA Corporation is tasked with providing electricity to islands across outlying atolls.
This comes at a time communities nationwide face the issue of surging electricity bills, every year during the hottest months.
Infuriated citizens have been taking to social media platforms to voice their concern over the inflation in electricity bills, stressing that the power tariff had increased four-fold during the previous month.
People have revealed that residences that do not exceed past MVR 1,000 in electricity bills per month, have been charged more than MVR 4,000 for electricity in the past month.
Some have alleged that the bills were wrongly calculated and that they were being charged for electricity they had not used, despite the ongoing heat wave.
The people have also been questioning whether or not there was an institution to look into the issue of surging electricity bills.
Further, they have been alleging that the government had reduced the electricity bills during the recent fasting month of Ramadan, and has doubled it after the month ended, to rob the people.
RaajjeMV was unable to attain a comment from FENAKA Corporation regarding the matter, at the time of publishing.
At a time the issue of increasing electricity bills has come into the spotlight, the government had asked the authorities to ensure water and electricity bills for the month of Ramadan were reduced. This was done ahead of the recently concluded parliamentary elections.
State Electric Company (STELCO) has revealed that last month’s bills have not been sent to households yet, and that they would begin sending bills within this week.
The issue of inflated electricity bills across households in the capital city came into the spotlight even on previous occasions.
Back then, STELCO revealed that the bills were high because of the consumption of electricity by the general public, due to high temperatures caused by global warming.
According to STELCO, households usually consume an average of 560 units of electricity during warmer days, compared to the 500 units generated during other months.
