TNB issues pay-up order

BY PRISCILLA DIELENBERG

PENANG: At least 24 people have been or-dered by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to pay a total of more than RM150,000 in compensation for alleged meter tampering over the years.

Four of them are disputing the allegation and the compensation they were ordered to pay.

They are calling on others in the same boat to contact them.

Aquarium owner Tong Soo Hong, 25, said the four of them would help those in similar situations to file claims as a group.

“We already have more than 20 people and we intend to file our claims next week,” he said.

“But we will continue to help others who contact us after that,” he told a press conference at the state DAP headquarters here yesterday.

Those who had approached them for help were disputing TNB’s claims for sums of be-tween RM5,000 to RM100,000.

Tong said on July 25 last year, TNB officials checked his premises in Kampung Baru, Bukit Mertajam, and alleged that his meter had been tampered with.

He received a letter dated Sept 11 asking him to pay RM5,935.26 as compensation from September 2005 to July 2006.

On Dec 27, TNB sent him another letter giving him 14 days to comply or reply, failing which his electricity supply would be cut on Feb 5.

“I sent in a letter before the deadline but TNB went ahead and cut off my power supply yesterday,” Tong said.

The other three men at the press conference were:

Lee Ching Wah, 42, who received a bill for RM8,008.35 for the duration of January 2003 to July 2005 for his furniture shop;

Coffee stall operator Tan Hoay Seanh, 64, who is required to pay RM26,133.59 for January 2001 to September 2005: and

Foo Bak Chai, 60, who has to pay RM9,676.97 for November 2005 to February 2006 for his house.

State DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow said there should be transparency and accountability in the billing.

“It is not listed how TNB arrived at the various sums.”

He called on Energy, Water and Com-munications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik to suspend TNB’s action of cutting power supply unless it could prove its claims were valid.

“Even if it is legal, there should be transparency. Otherwise, the consumer is put in a predicament where he has to pay up or power supply would be terminated,” Chow said.