MUSCAT:  Mansoor Al Hashmi lives in Al Ghubra with his wife and two kids. He spends typically just under OMR 15 a month for his electric bill each month but was shocked to see OMR 33 on last month’s statement. 

The situation is similar for many citizens and residents who were taken aback by their electricity bills having doubled, or even tripled, in the past month. “When I enquired, they said it could be because the subsidies have been removed and maybe because we consuming more than what we used to previously because of summer but this time last year even when we were in lockdown due to pandemic, the bill used to be below OMR 15,” Al Hashmi said speaking to The Arabian Stories.   

For expat resident Akhilesh Nair, who lives with his 10-member family including four kids under 10 years of age, got a shock when he received the electricity bill in June. “I used to spend around OMR 30 on my electricity bill but now I got a bill of OMR 68. This is too high and moving forward it will become difficult for me to afford this especially in this time of the pandemic,” Nair said. 

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

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. 

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.

Omani citizen Alawi Al Mashoor urged the government to ensure that the social security segments, the low-income people, and the middle class are not harmed, which have become suffering since the pandemic. 

“A steady increase in prices and a decrease in family income has taken a toll on people. This must be taken into account,” Mashoor said. 

“Last month my electricity bill was OMR 45 and this month is OMR 89. Yes, the subsidies have been removed but why is it doubled? We hope the authorities will clarify the tariffs,” said Omani citizen Ali Sulaiman on Twitter. 

Meanwhile, Tawfiq Al Lawati, former Majlis Al Shura member has called-on the government to into the inflated utility bills. “We are going through a challenging situation and people are affected due to the pandemic. The government must look at these concerns seriously,” he added.