1 month in arrears, power cut off for the entire meter, new policy of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), has made locals very angry amidst the scorching heat because there was no prior warning and in some cases, only 100+ baht in arrears, contrary to the Ministry of Interior's assistance for the people. Yesterday (7 March 2024), reporters reported that during this period, if any citizen calls the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) in their service area or calls the hotline number 1129 PEA Contact Center, they will hear a public relations message on hold that says "PEA complies with the policy of the Ministry of Interior by extending the period of power outage for residential electricity users who use no more than 300 baht of electricity per month, not exceeding 3 bills, to alleviate the public's financial burden. The project will start from the electricity bill of November 2023 to November 2024. For more information, please contact 1129 PEA Contact Center." However, in actual practice, the situation is hotter than the current scorching heat because the Provincial Electricity Authority Hired a private contractor to cut, remove, and move the meter since the electricity bill was overdue for the second period without any notification to the electricity users, either by a warning document or via the electricity users' mobile phones. For example, in Mueang District, Trang Province, under the service area of ​​the Provincial Electricity Authority of Trang Province, it was found that in the past week, electricity users were very angry after an employee, who was later found out to be a private contractor, cut off the electricity and removed the villagers' meters after they were overdue for only 1 month, or going into the second month, causing severe hardship to the electricity users. Reporters went to a village in Ban Khuan Subdistrict, Mueang District, Trang Province, where a house had its electricity cut off and the meter removed by an employee of a private contractor since the afternoon of March 4th, while the owner went to work outside the house. However, when he returned home in the evening, the lights would not turn on, so he went to look in front of the house and found that the meter had been removed, even though the electricity bill was overdue for only 1 month, totaling only 1,123.51 baht. The homeowner confirmed that he had never received any notification by document or mobile phone message, but suddenly an employee came and removed the meter, even though he had never been overdue for electricity bills in the past. However, it may be a bit late to pay because normally it is understood that it can be paid within 3 months. But the latest is that it is 1 month late, so they came to remove the meter, causing the family to have to rent a hotel to stay for 1 night, spending another thousand baht before the next day transferring the remaining electricity bill and having to pay an additional 107 baht in fines. However, in the evening of the same day, an employee of a private contractor company brought a meter to install for the original electricity user. When talking to the employee, it was learned that they are in the electricity connection department, while the electricity disconnection department is in another department. Currently, in Mueang Trang District, there are 2 contractor companies from Surat Thani and Phatthalung provinces. Each day, the electricity disconnection department will bring a sack of meters, even if the electricity bill is only 1 month late, it must be disconnected because it is a new policy. This employee did not know much about it because every day he had to run around reconnecting electricity to more than 10 houses from morning until night because the electricity users were waiting. When the reporter checked the bag at the back of the employee’s motorcycle, he found a number of meters and documents attached to the meters of the electricity users that had fallen out. All of them stated the same thing: 1 month of overdue electricity bills, with some people paying 300 baht, some paying 400 baht, and some paying only 153.71 baht. The condition for cutting off the electricity is the same for every household: not paying the overdue amount for 1 month, which has caused great hardship to the villagers. Amidst the current hot weather, Mr. Sommas Phutiphongkorn, Manager of the Provincial Electricity Authority, Trang Province, was in his office but left a message outside the office saying that he was not ready for an interview right away and asked for time to study the details before being interviewed. He requested an interview on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 13th at 1:00 p.m. Meanwhile, people were rushing to bring their electricity bills to pay their bills. Most of them were only overdue for 1 month or were going into the second month, so they rushed to pay because they were afraid of having their electricity cut off. This is because cases of power being cut off for only one month have spread widely, especially on social media. Reporters asked electricity users who came to pay their bills, many of whom said that their electricity had been cut off and their electricity meters removed because they had not paid for 1 month or were only 1-2 days past the due date, and then officials would immediately cut off the electricity and remove the electricity meters. And pleaded for the government to extend the payment period, not more than 3 bills a month, because each day people are busy with making a living and most of them have low incomes, living hand to mouth. Cutting off the electricity for just 1 bill a month is too much for the villagers. In addition, the villagers have already complained about the higher electricity bills. And then they were hit with the new policy of cutting off the electricity for the entire meter since the first month's outstanding bill, unexpectedly. They have to pay more for the installation fee, adding to the burden and hardship for the villagers. Some houses have bedridden patients who use electricity for oxygen machines, but their electricity is still cut off. Read more news at: https://ch3plus.com/news/social/morni... ------------------------- #เรื่องเล่าเช้านี้ (Morning News) March 8, 2024 Follow the news before anyone else here ch3plus: https://ch3plus.com/news/programs/mor... Facebook: / morningnewstv3 Twitter: / morningnewstv3 YouTube: https://cutt.ly/MorningnewsTV3 Tiktok: / morningnewsch3 #3PlusNews #ข่าวช่อง3 #สรุยทธ #บริตตี้