Rp. 19 Million Viral Electricity Bill, Ministry Of Energy And Mineral Resources: Rp1 Million

JAKARTA - A surge in electricity bills occurred again, this time experienced by a resident of Makassar City, South Sulawesi. Uploads about the electricity bill he experienced were viral on social media.

Through the Twitter account @ummudaardaa, the 900 watt electricity user said he was surprised that his bill reached Rp. 19 million. He also delivered it in a thread, but now he has deleted the thread.

Responding to this, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources ensured that the problems complained by the customers had been resolved. PLN has met with these customers and a joint solution has been agreed.

The Director of Business and Business of the Directorate General of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Hendra Iswahyudi, said that customers do not pay for electricity consumption of IDR 19 million, but only IDR 1 million.

Furthermore, he said, the government is also monitoring a number of complaints submitted by the public and will continue to try to find solutions together.

"So the problem of the Rp19 million bill has been cleared, so customers only pay less than Rp1,050,504 in installments four times, which is Rp262,626 per month," he said in a video conference, Tuesday, August 11.

Even so, the Director General of Electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Rida Mulyana, denied that the increase in electricity bills experienced by a number of customers during the COVID-19 pandemic occurred because PLN had a wrong record.

According to Rida, the increase in electricity bills occurred because of the three-month average calculation mechanism that was in place at the time the COVID-19 case entered Indonesia.

"So there is no mistake in making notes. This is because the recording mechanism is different. If the third party wants to come to the house, the house does not necessarily want to be visited. This is not possible, the electricity continues," he said.

PLN again received many complaints from customers which were conveyed through social media accounts. These customers have complained about electricity bills which have experienced a drastic increase amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the complaints came from the owner of the @ummudaardaa twitter account who uploaded proof of his electricity bill of Rp. 19.6 million with the use of 900 watts of electricity. He said that normally the bill is only around Rp. 400 thousand per month.

"Hopefully @ pln_123 can explain the increase in electricity bills which is beyond this reasonable limit, it will be sad if it ends up like the case @arnoldpoernomo," he was quoted as saying, Monday, August 11.

In the next tweet, @ummudaardaa admitted that PLN had followed up on this complaint. According to the information he received, there was an error recording two years ago.

"And I suspect the answer was mistakenly noted from two years ago. So, yes, we were told to pay in installments," he wrote.