Goa, Aug. 20 -- The government may have pressed the pause button on electricity penalties, but the power-bill shock facing Goan households shows no sign of abating. Consumers across the State continue to receive bills several times higher than what they had been paying earlier, including cases where the bills car ry zero penalty charges for both demand and energy. The continuing surge has effectively blown a hole in the government's earlier narrative that inflated elec tricity bills were substan tially linked to penalties for exceeding sanctioned load. A Fatorda resident, for in stance, received a bill of Rs 17,894 against Rs 7,500 in the previous billing cycle.

In Salcete, another consumer was confronted with a bill of Rs 22,695 despite...