PATNA, Sept. 5 -- A telecom executive in Patna was left without electricity for three days after a billing glitch generated an erroneous Rs.23,456 bill for a single day, officials said on Friday. Bishwajeet Kumar Sinha's power supply to his residential flat in Khagaul was disconnected on August 31 after his prepaid account showed a negative balance of Rs.23,318. He said his monthly consumption is usually below 125 units of free electricity allowed by the government, and he had last recharged his account with Rs.500 on May 23. The supply was restored on Thursday evening after Sinha flagged the unusually high bill. An investigation by the discom's IT team found that the error occurred during migration to a new billing software. "Due to migration of the billing software, the system fetched the consumer's opening balance as zero and treated the current meter reading of 5,582 kWh as the total consumption," an official familiar with the matter said. This resulted in the erroneous bill. The official said it could take another two to three days to rectify the bill, although the electricity supply had already been restored. The Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited said the state had replaced the earlier NIC and SAP billing software with a Revenue Management System (RMS) to improve and integrate electricity billing. "Some technical issues emerged during implementation of the new system, which are being addressed expeditiously," it said. The company said fixed charges (for example, Rs.80 per kW for urban domestic consumers) for June and July could not be adjusted in the bills of some urban domestic consumers whose monthly consumption exceeded the 125 units due to technical issues. The pending amount was subsequently adjusted as a one-time settlement in August bills, it said. The company clarified that no additional amount had been charged from consumers because of the adjustment. Smart prepaid meters have been installed at around 9.5 million consumer premises across Bihar. Pending fixed charges of about Rs.54.95 crore for June and July were applicable to 9,48,652 consumers. The amount was adjusted from their prepaid balances in August, the company said. The billing glitch, however, turned what should have been a routine adjustment into a three-day power cut for Sinha. The state has faced several issues with prepaid smart meters, where most have claimed that it often overcharges. According to officials, Recent software transitions and fixed-charge adjustments have caused sudden deductions from smart prepaid meters for over 9.48 lakh consumers in Bihar. The sudden drop in smart meter balances across Bihar is due to the bulk adjustment of pending fixed charges from June and July following a software transition. While the state's scheme covers energy consumption for up to 125 units, mandatory fixed charges and electricity duties are billed independently. In 2024, Tejashwi Yadav claimed that the smart pre-paid meters installed in the state were overcharging. However, chief minister Samrat Chaudhary had challenged him to provide evidence for the same....