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Government will refund the excess charges and requests resignation at CNEL
Posted On 30 May 2019
Ecuadortimes:
The multiple complaints of users of the National Electricity Corporation (CNEL), in Guayaquil, were echoed by the Government, which yesterday announced the resignation request of the manager Wilfrido Veintimilla and ordered the return of the energy service charges collected in excess in the city, through credits to the payroll.
“The errors that were made in the billing process will not harm any of the subscribers, there will be no power cuts and the new administration will be responsible for correcting the mistakes made by the company in the reading process,” said the secretary general of the Presidency, José Agusto Briones, at a press conference yesterday afternoon.
The Minister of Energy, Carlos Pérez, will designate the replacement of Veintimilla and if a prejudice is found due to negligence, there would be sanctions according to the law, it was announced.
CNEL suspends power cuts for claims
The coming and going of subscribers of the CNEL agencies in Guayaquil has intensified in these months. More and more people, with payroll in hand, come to claim for high service charges reflected in the respective invoices.
In April there were 8,209 complaints received by the institution and so far in May the figure rises to 9,000 in the nine agencies, for various reasons, including the cost.
Until the inspections of the reported cases are completed, power supply cuts are suspended, said Caroly Álvarez, customer service leader.
On Monday, Veintimilla, still in office, spoke of “failures” in meter readings in a period of last year.
And that day he argued that the entity hired a new company and that currently a real reading is taken, which could cause amounts not charged invoiced in previous months.
He said that if overcharges are checked, returns will be made.
But the announcement did not agree with many users. Elena Muñoz, for example, said that she should still pay the two payrolls (March and April) that she has matured in order not to accumulate more debt.
“Even if it is not your fault, you still have to pay until the company finds out case by case and returns,” said the woman, who lives in the urbanization Lago de Capeira, on the road to Daule.
She said that until January of this year she paid an average of $ 140 for energy consumption, but that in February she noticed an increase ($ 235.09), which was repeated in March.
“I thought that suddenly we consume more than normal, but now in April they already billed me 240 dollars, having taken measures to economize,” he said with surprise in the Ombudsman’s Office.
From this instance, a call was made to those affected to report their cases.
Dimas Barreiro, who lives in the streets of Oriente and Los Ríos, mentioned that last month his consumption was $ 106 when he usually canceled until
$ 20 for the service.
The subscriber mentioned that he is now canceling the values that he considers correspond to his actual consumption. He has requested the inspection of technicians of the entity and hopes that his case is resolved soon. (I)
