Rs 3,000-Crore Power Bill Left Family In Shock, Turns Out It Was Rs 1,300

Three officials of Madhya Pradesh's state-run power company face disciplinary action after a Gwalior resident received a shocking electricity bill of Rs 3,419 crore.

Priyanka Gupta, a resident of Gwalior's Shiv Vihar colony, woke up to a rude shock after receiving a monthly electricity bill of Rs 3,419,53,25,293 crore following which her father fell ill and had to be hospitalised.

The Madhya Pradesh government-run power company blamed "human error" and later issued a corrected bill of Rs 1,300.

The state government sacked the staff concerned, suspended the assistant revenue officer of the power company and issued a show cause notice to the junior engineer of the area.

Ms Gupta's husband Sanjeev, a lawyer, said: "I cross-checked the July 20 dated bill's status from the website of the power distribution company, but the same bill was shown uploaded there also.
My father-in-law Rajendra Prasad Gupta, has been discharged from hospital on Monday only."

The power company's general manager Nitin Manglik blamed software error for the shocking bill.

"An employee entered the consumer number in place of the units consumed in the software, resulting in the bill with a higher amount. The corrected bill of Rs 1,300 has been issued to the power consumer," he said.

The incident drew widespread attention from all over the country, with local MLA and state energy minister Pradumn Singh Tomar saying: "When the error came to our knowledge it was corrected and action has been taken against the staff."