FACT CHECK: MSEDCL to cut off power supply over non-payment of bill?

‘Your electricity supply will be cut off at 9.30 pm tonight if you fail to pay your electricity bill. Fake 'SMS' is being sent to the power consumers saying that they should immediately contact a personal mobile number. Some citizens have received such fake messages in the district.

MSEDCL has not sent any such SMS. Therefore, MSEDCL has appealed not to respond to this message. Sent from different personal mobile numbers; But citizens should not respond to ‘SMS’ or WhatsApp messages or calls related to MSEDCL. If a link is sent from a personal mobile number to pay the bill, ignore it altogether. Otherwise it is likely to lead to financial fraud. Only MSEDCL sends SMS through the system to registered electricity customers and its sender ID is MSEDCL. MSEDCL has clarified that no customer is informed on the personal mobile number.

MSEDCL can only restore the power supply in case of interruption due to pre-planned maintenance and repairs, technical or other reasons via SMS only, as well as the amount of monthly electricity bills, appeals to customers to send meter readings themselves, date of meter reading and total number of units used.