NEW DELHI: Electricity meters in Delhi homes could well capture the reality of the national capital's privatization of power distribution with the CAG audit pointing to an array of anomalies and exaggerations around these humble meters.Following complaints from consumers, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) had formed a committee in 2003 to examine the quality of meters. Based on the committee's report, DERC directed discoms that meters manufactured by TTL and Elymer should be replaced on priority. "However, discoms could fully replace these meters only by 2010-11," the audit report said.The report also said government schools, hospitals and other institutions were over charged by discoms.However, it is in the business of electricity meters that several bizarre twists were seen. Only meters put to use and installed at the consumers' premises should be included as fixed assets (capitalized) on which discoms are allowed returns.The CAG audit found that as on March 31, 2013, BRPL had capitalized 22.10 lakh meters while there were only 18.49 lakh consumers. The number of consumers intimated by the company to DERC differed widely from the number of consumers as per the billing data furnished to the audit.Meters removed from consumers' premises are auctioned as scrap. In the list of discarded assets produced to the audit by BRPL, it showed 9.96 lakh meters to have been discarded between 2005-06 and 2011-12. However, from the meter utilization data, the audit found that 14.41 lakh meters were actually removed from consumers' premises. Therefore, 4.45 lakh meters valued at Rs 58.39 crore remained unaccounted for.In BYPL, 16.94 lakh meters were capitalized while the number of consumers was only 12.89 lakh.TPDDL showed that 11.93 lakh new meters were installed during between 2008-09 and 2012-13 while only 3.83 lakh new consumers were added during this period.The audit said in BYPL, an unwarranted burden of Rs 65.24 crore was placed on consumers because of the discrepancy in meters. In BRPL, the unwanted burden on consumers because of meters was Rs 63.06 crore.The audit found that the cost of replacing meters within the warranty period was borne by the discoms and capitalized. For example, Rs 19.33 crore was borne by BRPL, instead of the manufacturers, and passed on to the consumers. Similarly, BYPL replaced 1.12 lakh defective meters and the cost of Rs 12.09 crore was not recovered from the manufacturer but passed on to consumers. Similarly, TPDDL placed a burden of Rs 27.54 crore on consumers.The audit found that the discoms delayed installation of KVA meters which were meant to improve consumption efficiency.There was also widespread issuance of bill before the notified billing period. "In 2011-12 and 2012-13, it was found that the discoms issued 27% of their bills in violation of the notified billing cycle, causing inconvenience to the consumer," the audit said.