State Electric Company (STELCO) has decided to offer discounts in electricity bills, following public criticism.

In a post on social media platform ‘X’ STELCO’s Managing Director Hussain Fahmy revealed that the company has decided to offer discounts for electricity consumed during the fasting month of Ramadan, as per President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s pledge.

He added that the existing bills that have already been sent to customers, will be amended accordingly and sent back to them as soon as possible.

This comes after residents of outlying atolls began flooding social media with criticism over the recent hike in electricity bills.

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.

In a press conference held at the President’s Office, Fahmy defended the issue and stated that they had compiled the bills “properly” and the amounts were correct.

He added that due to the heatwave, there was an increase in electricity consumption.

Stressing that STELCO will always abide by the decisions taken by the government, Fahmy noted that they had provided discounts amounting to MVR 20 million for the fasting month.

Fahmy claimed that the discount was also given to newer households.

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.

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.