MUSCAT: With growing complaints by citizens and expats over unusually high electricity bills, the Authority for Public Services Regulation has (APSR) issued a clarification.

Many social media users were taken aback by their electricity bills having doubled, or even tripled, in the past month.

In a statement issued APSR said it will review the bills. “As the Authority for Public Services Regulation has been following with great interest what is being circulated on social media about the inflated electricity bills for some subscribers, it would like to clarify that the authority spares no efforts to ensure that electricity distribution companies follow the applicable standards while issuing bills all its subscribers.”

APSR affirmed that in “the event that the licensed companies do not comply with the regulatory frameworks of the calculation mechanism, the Authority will intervene in favour of the subscriber to amend the calculation based on the bases it has approved, in accordance with the legal powers granted to it,” the statement said.

APSR said since the beginning of this year, the authority had requested all licensed companies to comply with the regulatory framework when issuing electricity bills to ensure their accuracy.

The statement from APSR comes after citizens took to Twitter to explain their concerns over inflated electricity bills. The hashtag #HighElectriciryBills in Arabic has been trending since Saturday.