About 66 lakh electricity consumers in Chhattisgarh will no longer be penalised with a full month's surcharge for paying their bills even a day or two late. Under a new rule from the Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission (CSERC), late payment interest will now be calculated on a daily basis — consumers pay only for the exact number of days the payment is delayed.

The Chhattisgarh State Power Company has moved to clear the air after social media posts and some news reports described the change as a "double blow" or an added burden on consumers. The company said such claims are factually wrong and misleading.

Under the old system, even a single day's delay in paying the electricity bill triggered a full-month surcharge of 1.5 percent. So a consumer who missed the due date by 48 hours would end up paying the same penalty as someone who delayed by 30 days. That anomaly has now been corrected.

The new rate is 0.04 percent per day. A one-day delay means a surcharge of just 0.04 percent. Even a full 30-day delay adds up to only 1.2 percent — lower than the earlier flat charge of 1.5 percent that applied regardless of how many days the payment was overdue.

Power company officials said the change was made with consumer interests in mind and was not intended to increase the financial burden on households. The daily calculation method is also described as more transparent and easier to understand than the earlier system.

The company has appealed to both the public and media to share accurate information, so that confusion does not spread among consumers. It has specifically pushed back against the characterisation of the daily interest rate as a new or additional charge — emphasising that the effective rate for most delayed payments is now less than what it was before.

Separately, Chhattisgarh has also seen electricity tariff revisions for 2026-27. CSERC has approved a rate increase of 30 to 50 paise per unit for domestic consumers and 20 to 40 paise for commercial users. Congress has announced it will surround electricity offices across the state in protest against the tariff hike.