West Bengal halts residential smart meter installations amid protests

Amid protests over alleged inflated electricity bills following the installation of prepaid smart meters, the West Bengal government has decided to allow residential power consumers to opt out from the system and revert to traditional devices, an official said on Tuesday.

The government had on Monday temporarily suspended fresh installations of smart meters for domestic consumers, he said.

“The installation of smart meters for residential consumers has been temporarily suspended, but there is no plan for a mass recall. Consumers can choose to switch back to conventional meters," the official said.

The prepaid smart meter installation will continue for commercial and government establishments, the official said.

The decision comes after the BJP and the Left Front have been accusing the Trinamool Congress government of "burdening households with sudden tariff hikes and opaque smart meter installation".

There had been protests in districts such as Howrah, North 24 Parganas, and Bardhaman, where people alleged their bills doubled or tripled after smart meter installations.

The Mamata Banerjee government had earlier approved large-scale smart meter deployment to help the cash-strapped utility, West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd, recover dues.

The state government departments alone owed over Rs 1,500 crore to the discom, which has a total debt of Rs 15,400 crore in the 2023–24 fiscal, the official said.

In May, Polaris Smart Metering secured a Rs 2,246-crore contract to install 2.2 million smart meters in West Bengal under the Centre’s Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS).