Guang’an reports the investigation results of “water, electricity and gas billing measurement issues”: Six major problems found in enterprises including confusing billing cycles
On January 17th, in response to the recent issues raised by some users about the state-owned holding enterprise Sichuan Guang’an Aizhong Co., Ltd. in terms of measurement instruments, measurement fees, and service attitude, Guang’an District of Guang’an City officially announced on its WeChat platform that upon investigation, it was found that the company had multiple problems, including abnormal data displayed on some APP user ends, confused billing cycles, and irregular meter reading.
The announcement stated that no problems were found with the water, electricity, and gas meters, and no remote manipulation to alter the measurement of these meters was found during the investigation. For the issues that have been identified, the joint investigation team has instructed the company to fully refund the overcharged fees. The Market Supervision Bureau of Guang’an District has launched an investigation into the company’s suspected violations of laws and regulations based on the investigation findings. According to the cadre management authority, Yu Zhengjun has been removed from his position as the secretary of the party committee of Guang’an Aizhong Co., Ltd., and his position as chairman has been nominated for removal.
Previously, the “Asking Politics in Sichuan” platform had multiple complaints about the irregular charges of Guang’an Aizhong for water, electricity, and gas. Among them, some citizens complained that they were charged hundreds of yuan for water, electricity, and gas fees in a single day. On January 11th, “Guang’an District Micro-Release” announced that Guang’an had formed a joint investigation team to conduct a comprehensive investigation at the company.
The announcement on the 17th showed that the joint investigation team had set up four special groups to carry out classification work, and organized 18 verification teams to verify the situation at home. They also invited representatives from all sectors of society such as representatives of the people’s congress, political consultative committee members, media reporters, and internet personalities to participate in the investigation, with the district discipline inspection committee and supervisory committee supervising the entire process. During the investigation, methods such as retrieving data, conducting on-site inspections, off-site inspections, system testing, and data comparison were used to investigate relevant issues. The Guang’an Aizhong Co., Ltd. was repeatedly summoned to urge them to take seriously the investigation work and speed up the verification of user complaints.
According to the current investigation and verification, the following problems were identified in Guang’an Aizhong Co., Ltd.: First, smart system management and maintenance are not in place, and some APP user-end data display anomalies. The system operates unstable affecting the normal use of APP payment functions. For example, in July 2024, some users in Gaoyan area of Guangfu Street could not pay their bills through the APP normally during some periods. The abnormal system warning information was not timely verified, and the electricity meter signal was offline for a long time, resulting in accumulated fees for several months being charged in one month. For example, in January 2025, a commercial user reported paying 8719 kWh of electricity fees in one month. After verification, it was found that due to slow recovery of system signal after a long time being offline, electricity fees for eight months were charged in one month.
Second, billing cycles are confused and tiered pricing is not implemented properly. During the replacement of smart meters, enterprise data entry is not timely done. After replacing a batch of meters, data is only entered into the system uniformly. Some user billing cycles are delayed resulting in multi-month electricity being counted in one month and extra high-tier fees are paid resulting in increased user fees for that month. For example, after a user switched to a smart meter in September 2024, data was only entered in November for the first three months resulting in an additional cost of 124 yuan due to tiered pricing rules being applied to cumulative usage over several months instead of monthly usage only.
Thirdly there are irregularities in offline meter reading with errors and violations of estimated readings. Data is not checked after being copied resulting in inaccurate data entry. For example in December 2023 there was an error in copying a user’s water meter reading resulting in an overestimation of 95 tons of water used which led to overcharged fees.. There are also problems with not visiting households or when visiting but without communicating with users resulting in estimated readings being taken without proper authorization.. For instance in June 2024 a user’s gas meter reading was estimated by staff without actual verification resulting in discrepancies between estimated readings and actual usage..
Fourthly working methods are simple and settlement rules are not transparent.. The replacement of water smart meters is done without proper organization resulting in insufficient publicity and most users are unaware of this change leading some users to report “the enterprise counts arbitrarily and charges uniformly for several months.” After investigation it was found that most water supply enterprises adopt
