Bagerhat Correspondent:

A tea stall owner in Fakirhat upazila of Bagerhat received an electricity bill of Tk3,01,746 for a single month, leaving his family in shock.

Authorities later admitted it was a mistake and corrected the bill.

The shopkeeper, Apurba Kundu, runs a small one-room tea stall with his mother, Tapati Rani Kundu, in Lakhpur Bazar. The shop only uses two bulbs, a fan and a refrigerator.

Apurba said the bill for such limited use usually ranges between Tk250 and Tk500.

“Last month, the bill was Tk1,876. When I went to the Fakirhat Zonal Office, the extra bill was reduced to Tk316. This month, when I received the bill, I saw that it was Tk3,01,746. My whole family was shocked.

“When the matter became public, staff from the electricity office came on Thursday night and took the bill away. We are suffering repeatedly because of these mistakes,” Apurba said.

Customers in the area also alleged that many others in Lakhpur have received inflated or “ghost” bills. They complained of inconsistencies between bills from one month to the next and accused Palli Bidyut Samity of negligence, saying the bills are often issued without checking meters.

Apurba appealed to the authorities to ensure that such errors do not occur again.

Ananda Kumar Kundu, deputy general manager of Fakirhat Palli Bidyut Samity, said the error had occurred due to a mistake by a billing assistant, who has been served a show-cause notice.

“The bill was corrected, and a bill of Tk310 was given to the shopkeeper,” he said.

Previously, in December 2023, another tea stall owner in Bagerhat received an electricity bill of Tk13,87,197, which was later corrected to Tk162.