Also read: Have STP and fire hydrant in your apartment? This is what BESCOM can charge
In the past month, several apartment complexes on Sarjapur Road in Bengaluru received a notice from BESCOM asking for payment of additional security deposit. In one case, the notice specified that the existing deposit was Rs 47,120 and the calculated MMD (Months Minimum Deposit) was Rs 1,43,690, and therefore the difference of Rs 96,570 was needed to be paid to BESCOM to avoid disconnection.
When this came to Citizen Matters’ notice, we decided to have a chat with BESCOM to find out what the security deposit meant and why apartments should pay up.
What is the security deposit that BESCOM asks for?
BESCOM collects a security deposit from all its consumers at the time of issuing a new connection. The initial security deposit is a standard amount that is fixed based on the amount of power that a consumer requires. From the following year, this amount is typically calculated on the average bill amount corresponding to two months in the case of monthly billing, and on the average bill amount corresponding to four months in case of bi-monthly billing.
BESCOM sources say that the security deposit is akin to the deposit collected by banks as minimum balance or by landlords from tenants prior to giving a house on rent, and that it was necessary to collect this money to protect itself from those consumers who did not pay their electricity bill on time.
BESCOM also states that consumers are typically given 30 days time to pay their bill. A grace period of 15 days is added to this. So even for those consumers who do not pay their bills on time, the connection typically did not get disconnected for 45 days and this was another reason why it was essential that they collected the security deposit.
What is the Additional security deposit (ASD)?
At any point in time, the security deposit that BESCOM needs to have from a consumer is equal to 2 months billing. For instance if the average bill amount corresponding for 2 months is Rs 1,500, where monthly billing is approx. Rs 750, then the security deposit that a consumer is liable to give BESCOM is Rs 1,500 (750×2). In the following year, if the monthly billing value rises to Rs 950, as a result of hike in the unit price rise or due to increase in consumption of power, the security deposit should be Rs 1,900 (950×2). At this time, BESCOM sends a notice to the consumer, asking him to pay the difference, in this case, Rs 400, to meet the difference. This is the ASD amount that consumers can see at the bottom of their electricity bill and need to rightfully be paid to BESCOM.
Why does BESCOM ask for ASD every year?
With the almost annual increase in the unit price of power, and an increase in the number of electrical appliances that consumers use, it is only inevitable that power consumption too increases and with it the billing amount too. The Additional Security Deposit is the difference between the security deposit that BESCOM has and what they are meant to have in correlation with consumers’ present billing.
BESCOM carries out an audit every year in March-April and this is when the amount of security deposit for consumers is calculated. Officials also mentioned that they asked consumers for ASD, only if the additional amount to be paid was greater than Rs 200 for domestic consumers and Rs 1,000 for commercial consumers.
How can ASD be paid?
The Additional Security Deposit can be paid just as the regular electricity bill – either at one of BESCOM’s sub-divisional offices or at Bangalore One centers. Do ensure that you inform the staff sitting at the counter that the payment is for the ASD.
To make the ASD payment online, visit www.bescom.co.in and click on the text that reads Online Payment. This will take you to the Quick Payment page. Enter your Account ID (you will find this on your bill) and the captcha, and choose ASD (the available options are Pay Bill, ASD, ISD, and MSD). Once you agree to the Terms & Conditions, you can make the relevant payment.
Tips from BESCOM
- Switch off lights and other electrical appliances when not in use.
- While leaving your home for a long period of time, turn off the mains.
- Turn off all lights other than security lights when a building is not in case
Tips to reduce consumption of electricity
- Switch off the fridge for one hour between 6 to 9 pm
- Do not use washing machines, geysers, iron boxes and other heavy appliances during peak hours
- Turn off unnecessary lights and fans during peak hours
- Switch off air-conditioners during peak hours
How can I check if I need to pay ASD?
The ASD amount is typically printed at the bottom of your monthly electricity bill, immediately after the total billing amount.
Is there any possibility of the ASD being refunded?
The ASD is refunded only on termination of a meter. BESCOM officials stated that the chances of them having to refund was minimal as people typically do not surrender their meter or terminate the connection.
However, Ravi, a resident of SJR Redwoods on Sarjapur Road, says that in the past he has seen cases where BESCOM gave discount on the electricity bill when the security deposit paid was more.
Who pays the ASD in case of a rented property?
In case of a rented property, the ASD needs to be paid by the land owner. However, it is up to the landlord and tenant to decide between themselves by mutual consent as to who would bear the responsibility of payment. In the event that the ASD amount was to be refunded, it would be given to the landlord; therefore the tenant shouldn’t ideally have to pay the amount.
What happens to the ASD request received for common areas in apartments?
The community has to share the amount and pay it. Typically, the association will pay it from the corpus or common funds.
Should the ASD be paid compulsorily?
It is best that people pay the additional security deposit that BESCOM asks for. While BESCOM is justified in asking for the security deposit and the additional security deposit, there does not seem to have been sufficient communication from them in the past to intimate people about what it really is. This gap in communication has probably led to people misunderstanding the reason for the security deposit and therefore being unwilling to pay the amount.
Since January 2013, BESCOM has put a grievance redressal system in place where consumers can resolve complaints about faulty or excess billing. You can have a look at the press release here.
This is ridiculous! Once an ASD is paid (at the time of connection) it should suffice to establish the customer’s bonafides without harassing her for more money periodically. It looks like BESCOM considers ASD as an additional source of revenue.
I totally agree with you bro is there any alternative for bescom in karnataka
My bill mentioned Rs 800 ASD.
I paid it online along with my regular bill. at http://www.bescom.co.in/ website.
Account summary now showing as Rs -800.
To enquire about it, I called BESCOM helpdeks, they are saying, I need to pay it in cash at BESCOM only.
its very difficult to understand Asd especially a common man
V.Padmanabhan,
The tenant consumes the electricity and he gets the bill of that particular month reading.I being the landlord will pay 2 Monthly Minimum Deposit(MMD) as Additional Security Deposit(ASD). Suppose if the tenant consumes more electricity in the next upcoming bill,should I have to pay ASD corresponding to the consumed electricity bill with no fault of mine as landlord. Eg.,If the monthly bill is for Rs.1500 billing approx Rs.750 then the security deposit which I have to pay Rs.2×750 i.e. Rs.1500. If the same tenant consumes more electricity than Rs.1500 should should I have to pay the difference of ASD. Please clarify.
As the ASD Amount is refundable, Owner will get it after termination of the Connection and surrendered meter. Tenants can consume electricity as per their need, They have right to do so.
Also this can be resolved as the tenant will pay the ASD for now but when the tenant will surrender the rented area to owner. Tenant should get the ASD refund from owner as the ASD is not the charges for their consumption and that SD will be refundable to owner.
dr bescom their i have one complain ,the think is when u send the asd bill with eletric bill their tent people is geting prob so their owner saying this biil u have to pay but as per u r ruls this asd bill have to landlord mean owner ,so why not send the bill direct to the owner to separet ,and ask him to paid asd biil ,why u send the bill ,with this as regular biil .when sending asd biil with regular bill than owner easy to say tent people to the asd bill,which have to payable to landlord ,i thin u find this solution to help the tent people thnk u
To simplify, its just another ploy for cheating people.. u know for sure that its impossible to get the refund or interest back on amount paid to Bescom…
So by their logic our meters are appreciating in cost rather than the other way around.I would have agreed to the amount if they removed the old meters and installed new digital ones.This is nothing but a new method of extraction of the ever so complacent “JANTA”.
What about the existing deposit and its interest..? Why interest amount is not used as ASD.
You can pay online !!
1) https://www.bescom.co.in/SCP/Myhome.aspx
2) Do NOT login
3) Click on flashing “Online Payment”
4) Enter your account ID (Printed in your every bill)
5) Enter captcha text displayed
6) Click on “ASD” (You will have options “Pay bill”, “ASD”, “ISD”, “MSD”)
7) Tick mark “I have read terms & condition”
8) Select Billdesk & choose any mode of online payment (Net-banking, Credit-card) and pay
Easy life 🙂
Our house owner submits to us last day !. is ASD paid by the owner or by tenant?. an added burden to the peoples i felt really bad along with the rent stuff getting tuff to live on..within budget.
Is it for the upcoming year or existing year ASD – Advance Security Deposit. if advance is for current year 2015. i may change room in next months.. why should i pay for the room for which i may not use?.
Any suggestions are welcome..
Thanks in advance pals 🙂
I think ASD is not paid every year. Whenever the security deposit seems less as in the case of increased usage, BESCOM demands more deposit. My owner is asking me to pay it. This is ridiculous. Please correct me if I am wrong.
The reason seems logical for ASD, and in that case this has to be borne by the flat owners and not by the tenants. Not sure why owners ask tenants to pay the same
‘@chethan, thanks. tried the system you mentioned and it works fine. will be incorporating the same into the article. – ganga
“In the beginning ….. And God said let there be light and there was light”. He would not have anticipated there will be Bescom who will ask people to pay for the “lights” they used and any other way which they can collect more money to squander on employees who are lazy,unskilled, and corrupt.
Let us start from the beginning……… In our residential complex of 72 apartments as per Bescom’s rule the builder had to pay for two 500 Kva transformers its accessories including 780 meters long armoured 11Kva cables though there was another incoming line just 50 meters away. Total cost came to Rs.81 lakhs. All of us paid MMD’s when we got our individual meters in our name for a sanctioned load of 5KW each under LT2A1-N and separate three phase meters for each block for common consumption.
Being a technician I raised the subject of oil leaking from one transformer and other maintenance on the RMU that supplies power to our complex. Bescom reacted and said the transformers, cables, switch gear, meters, anything and every thing belong to them. The rules say all “hardware” we paid for belong to Bescom after one year of energising the complex. Rs.81 lakhs worth of material (almost Rs.1.125 lakhs per resident) just gulped down. Then every time an arch fuse wire blows due to wind, or birds, or squirrel the Bescom Doctor turns after five to six golden hours. Our D.G.Set which consumes 11 liters fuel per hour cost us an average Rs.3360.00. Just shutting down the breaker for our complex at the RMU for 15 minutes, and tie a wire the line man ask for at least Rs.2000. It is now 13 years that the transformers were not maintained like arresting the oil leak, filtering and topping up of the oil, painting the them, and do a major maintenance of the RMU,pillar boxes, and safety audit. Our Association sent an official letter to the concerned sub division requesting for the “maintenance”, and a day later a person called on us and offered to do the “oil filtering” if we are ready to pay Rs.50,000.00 in cash. On further enquiry we found out that this person is from “out sourced” company that does the filtering job for Bescom. He wanted to collect Rs.50,000 from us and also bill Bescom for it and share the loot with you know who. A detailed complaint to the M.D did not yield any results in the last three years.
OK, we pay for everything including the “chai-pani” for the lineman, ASD,CSD,etc.Will Bescom pay back for not providing power uninterrupted and quality power. (220 Volts at 50 cycles). It seems they know when I put the clothes inside the washing machine, or switch on the desktop, the power goes, (what the techies call “brown out”). They even have such “sensors” I missed the PMs “Man ki baat” twice.
I suggest a new system for Bescom. We the consumers pay for the power estimated by Bescom one month in advance. If there are power failures during the month, Bescom refunds the money back to us for the time our D.G.Set ran, or UPS was used at our rates. Do they have the courage and conviction to do that?
‘@M Ramachandran
I understand your situation and most of the apartments in the city will be undergoing this situation sooner or later. BESCOM and its members are not doing their duty of maintaining the transformers and even our apartment community faced similar situation and were fed up with their attitude after raising lot of complaints.
Why don’t you raise an RTI query on the maintenance activity run by BESCOM or do a public litigation in the court at least it will make life easier for other citizens of Bangalore
As bescom bares all the elctrial problem, New connections etc, we have to pay Additional security deposit.It is benifical for us as mentioned in the article, if electrical meters are terminated they secure us by refunding the a A.S.D amount …
BESCOM wont pay interest for our ASD amount??,Whether the interest occurred from ASD will be deducted from our electric bill by default?
Bescom is just cheating people by giving wrong bills and wrong ASD amount, from 930 to they made 2150 suddenly. Bescome people does not even know to print bill properly. Untrained people they have hired. They are taking common people for granted and they want us run behind them to solve the issue.
The Owner Should bear the responsibility of the security deposit, even over here the owner is asking me to the money
It is public cheating , Especially tenants are victims in ASD. it should be refundable to consumer.
Sir we need additional load and also deposit amount including severvice line charges, supervisor charges but some problem we don’t want additional load
Pl guid us how I will get the all amount including service line charges
where can we see the total ASD deposited? bcoz every time we get a notice to pay some extra amount.
if we just keep on paying ASD and can’t track it how do we know there is a proper record maintained.
When you select the operator ex:MESCOM BESCOM etc you can visit their website in internet and search as electricity bill payment. When you enter your Bill of to pay your electricity bill you get options ASD ISD MSD Bill payment etc… Go to ASD and check how much is your Additional Security Deposit. You will get it.
Thank you
Is this ASD for all meters like lg/aeh etc. in entire state?
Will there be any interest paid on the security deposit?
Typically, it is rare for an electricity connection to be disconnected.
For an average bill of ₹3,000, a security deposit of ₹6,000 will be required.
If we calculate a 10% return compounded annually for 50 years, the amount will exceed ₹7,00,000.
Without interest, it is not justified to keep money idle for someone else.