State Electric Company Limited (STELCO) reveals its staff will visit households to obtain reading of metres to prepare the bills from the month of June.
During the past two months, STELCO prepared the electricity bills referring to the photos of metre boards sent from households. The state-owned enterprise temporarily suspended physically visiting households to take readings to ensure the safety and protection of its staff amid the community spread of COVID-19 in the Greater Male' Region. The bills of the households that failed to send the photos of the metre boards were prepared by referring to the past bills and calculating an average.
Noting that people faced difficulties in sending the photos of metre boards via its web portal, STELCO said its staff will continue to visit households to take the readings and ease the process. The company assured safety measures will be imposed in visiting households, adding the bills of households that are difficult to access to will be prepared by referring to the photos sent, noting such households will be notified via SMS. The company urged its customers to make payments online.
The government decided to subsidise 40% of electricity bills and 30% from water bills for the months of May and June, as part of the COVID-19 relief for the citizens. Ministry of Finance revealed USD 3.2 million was spent on on electricity bills of 92,588 households as part of the relief efforts.