Recently, some residents in Chongqing have reported a sharp increase in gas bills, all of which started when Chongqing Gas Company replaced new gas meters for local residents.
It stands to reason that the trade-in should be a good thing, and after a long time, the old watch may have problems such as inaccurate measurement, and such problems can be avoided after installing the new watch. However, Chongqing residents believe that the measurement is "inaccurate" after changing to the new meter, and the gas cost has increased significantly, with many residents saying that the cost has doubled in March, and some people have increased their gas bill by more than five times.
In fact, not only Chongqing, but also many places across the country have had residents question the sharp rise in gas costs after changing the meter, but there is no heated discussion on the Internet.
Chongqing Gas, an A-share listed company, issued a clarification announcement after the close of trading on April 12 in response to the controversy over "meter replacement and fee increase", which mentioned that the gas meter that has expired in service has been replaced in the near future, and has promised to come to the door within 24 hours to review the gas meter that the gas meter is inaccurate and the gas cost is too high as reported by the customer, and no measurement inaccuracy has been found in the reviewed gas meter as of the date of the announcement.
To put it simply, Chongqing Gas denied that the new meter was inaccurate, so what happened to the sharp rise in gas bills for some residents? Chongqing Gas gave an explanation.
There are four main reasons for this.
First, the old meter is aging, and the measurement is not accurate, which leads to the previous undercounting, and the measurement data of the new meter is the real gas consumption of residents.
Second, the data of the old meter was transmitted two months late, and at the same time, the change in price adjustment in April required centralized meter reading, which led to the increase in gas consumption of users, which means that the expenses of the previous months were calculated together with the settlement of this month.
Third, the upstream Sinopec gas supply price has risen, and the Chongqing Municipal Development and Reform Commission has raised the gas price.
Fourth, there is a slight leakage in the trachea and joints of some residents' homes.
However, these explanations are clearly not acceptable to Chongqing residents.
For example, in response to the first point of explanation, why do residents think that the old watch is inaccurate during its service life, and even if there is an error, it cannot be as much as 1 times different.
For another example, the essence of the second explanation means that the meter reading data of the first two months was not uploaded, which means that the gas bill for the first few months should be zero or very little, and all the costs are superimposed on the month when the data is uploaded, and the gas bill of the complaining resident in the first few months is not much lower.
The third and fourth points are also unreasonable, and some residents want to change back to their old watches but are unable to make the trip.
What is even more puzzling is that the operating performance of Chongqing Gas, a listed company, rose sharply in the fourth quarter of last year.
According to the performance report released by the company, Chongqing Gas will achieve a net profit attributable to the parent company of 493 million yuan in 2023, and the net profit attributable to the parent company in the first three quarters of last year will be 274 million yuan, which means that Chongqing Gas earned 219 million yuan in the fourth quarter of 2023, an increase of 813% compared with 24 million yuan in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Although the replacement of the meter is in the first quarter of this year, which will not affect the operation in the fourth quarter of last year, it is difficult for the net profit of a company with public utilities as its main business to increase by 8 times year-on-year, and even associate it with the "meter change and fee increase".
China's water, electricity, coal, and other public utilities related to people's livelihood are state-owned monopoly industries, and the actual controllers behind the relevant companies are the central and state-owned enterprises. Taking Chongqing Gas as an example, the top 10 shareholders include China Resources Gas, Chongqing Energy Investment, Chongqing Urban Investment, China Development Bank, Bank of Chongqing, Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank, etc., which are either central or local state-owned enterprises.
What is the purpose of the state monopoly of public utilities? Isn't it to prevent excessive market competition from leading to the increase in the cost of water, electricity and coal, thereby increasing the additional economic burden on a large number of people at the bottom? Therefore, from a certain point of view, the relevant enterprises that provide water, electricity and coal do not take profit as the primary purpose, but the most important thing is to ensure the basic daily life needs of the people and help the development of other enterprises, and making money is only a secondary goal.
If we go against this original intention and put profit and making money in the first place, then we should not enjoy the monopoly management right, simply let the monopoly and let other forms of ownership business entities enter, and return the choice to the market and consumers.
Back to the issue of replacing the new gas meter in Chongqing. Some residents in Chongqing expressed a desire to have the new watch tested by an independent third-party organization to determine whether the measurement was accurate, but received a reply that "only the test results of the specified company will be recognized". This is very funny, the testing agency is designated by you, is it possible to issue a report that is unfavorable to the designator? Unless you don't want to eat this bowl of rice, you can't even rule out the possibility that the testing agency belongs to Chongqing Gas Group. I really don't see any point in such a test.
Now, the local market supervision department has intervened in the matter, and residents who have expressed doubts about the problem of the meter while accepting complaints and reports can send the gas meter to the local legal metrology verification agency in Chongqing, or they can get it to the legal metrology and measurement agency in other places for inspection. I think this is the right response attitude, since I feel that there is no problem with the table, I can boldly and confidently take it to the test, as long as it is a test report issued by a qualified testing agency, whether it is located in Chongqing or outside the city.