Some gas companies do have the problem of overcharging and overcharging gas fees reported by the public.
Chu Xiaoqiang丨Text
The turmoil over abnormal gas bills is still spreading.
"It's true that more people have been calling recently to ask about the cost of use. A staff member of Nanjing Ganghua Gas Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nanjing Ganghua") told Shanhai New Finance.
Nanjing Ganghua is another gas company that has been questioned about abnormal gas costs, following Chongqing Gas, a holding subsidiary of China Resources Gas, and Chengdu Gas, a joint-stock company. The "phone call" mentioned by the above-mentioned staff member is related to the problem of residents frequently reporting to Nanjing Ganghua about the skyrocketing gas bills.
In the face of residents' doubts, Nanjing Ganghua is also actively cooperating with the situation. "The staff will come to check for gas leaks and check the gas meter to see if there is a problem with the gas meter. Nanjing Ganghua staff said.
Just a few days ago, the abnormal charging incidents of Chengdu Gas and Chongqing Gas caused widespread concern in the society.
After the incident fermented, Chengdu City and Chongqing Municipality set up joint investigation teams to interview and investigate the gas companies involved. The results show that some gas companies do have the problems of overcharging and overcharging gas fees reported by the public, including many violations such as miscopying and illegal estimation of gas consumption, confusion in billing cycles, and inadequate implementation of price policies.
01
Another gas company is embroiled in a fee dispute
The public opinion storm of abnormal gas costs has spread from Sichuan to Jiangsu. Chongqing Municipality and Chengdu City have just investigated and dealt with the chaos and violations of local gas charges involving local gas companies, and residents in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province and other places have reported abnormal gas costs.
According to a number of Nanjing users, in the case of normal gas consumption at home, the gas fee has risen a lot compared with the past, and some users even said that their own expenses have directly doubled.
For example, according to the payment records posted by Nanjing netizen "Baby Panhahaha" on Xiaohongshu, in June, August, and October 2023, the payment of their own gas was 50 or 60 yuan, but in December, it reached 106.05 yuan. In February this year, the payment amount rose to 148.47 yuan, and on April 16, the payment amount was 142.41 yuan.
The netizen said, "Just two people take a bath, let's start once or twice a month, and the (dosage) has not changed compared with last year, is it only me (gas fee) so high?"
According to the official website of Nanjing Ganghua, it mainly supplies gas to the main urban area of Nanjing, and the franchise area covers Xuanwu District, Gulou District, Qinhuai District, Jianye District, Yuhuatai District, Qixia District and part of Tangshan District, Jiangning District, the main city of Jiangnan.
On the afternoon of April 21, Nanjing Ganghua issued a "Letter to Customers", admitting that customers have recently paid more attention to its gas billing issues, and said that in order to actively respond to customer concerns and protect the interests of customers, Nanjing Ganghua will answer customers' questions about gas as soon as possible.
Nanjing Ganghua staff also told Shanhai New Finance that there are indeed more customers who have called to inquire about expensive gas bills recently, "We are also actively registering, arranging staff to check whether the gas pipeline is leaking, and proofreading the gas meter to see if there is a problem with the gas meter." ”
When asked what caused a large number of users to report abnormal expenses? Does the company set up a special team to conduct an in-depth investigation? The staff member said, "I don't know if the company has a specific investigation, but as long as there are users who report problems, we will make a record to help solve them." ”
On April 19, it was learned from an article published by Nanjing Ganghua on the official WeChat that it is currently vigorously promoting the installation of smart gas meters, and many users have replaced new smart Internet of Things gas meters in their homes.
According to Nanjing Ganghua, the smart Internet of Things gas meter is a gas meter with communication and remote transmission function. It can automatically collect gas meter data, so as to realize remote meter reading, real-time billing, arrears reminder, remote valve control, online recharge and other functions.
Faced with the question of whether the charges have become more expensive due to the recent replacement of gas meters, Nanjing Ganghua staff said, "The customers who reported the problem are not only users who have recently replaced gas meters, but also users who have replaced gas meters several years ago, both of them. ”
02
Backed by Nanjing Public Utility, net profit plummeted by 97%
Founded on June 30, 2003, Nanjing Ganghua is a Sino-foreign joint venture invested by Nanjing Urban Construction Group and Hong Kong and China Gas. In July 2014, Nanjing Urban Construction Group put its equity into its subsidiary, Nanjing Public Utility. After the change of shareholding, Nanjing Public Utilities became the controlling shareholder of Nanjing Ganghua with 51% of the shares, and Hong Kong and China Gas held 49% of the shares, with a registered capital of 700 million yuan.
Nanjing Urban Construction Group is the controlling shareholder of Nanjing Public Utilities, and behind it is the Nanjing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Nanjing Public Utility was established on July 1, 1979 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on August 6, 1996. At first, Nanjing Public Utility was mainly engaged in taxi and long-distance passenger transport, and after several asset restructurings, the business scope has been continuously expanded, and now it is a comprehensive enterprise, with business covering real estate development, piped gas, taxis, electric energy, passenger buses, domestic and international tourism, automobile sales, automobile repair, automobile inspection, small loans, advertising media and many other fields.
Although Nanjing Ganghua, which is in charge of the gas sector, was only later placed in the listed company system, it occupies a pivotal position in Nanjing's public revenue.
In 2021, Nanjing's public operating income was 3.589 billion yuan, of which gas sales revenue was 2.465 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.27%, accounting for 69% of revenue. The increase in gas sales revenue was mainly due to the increase in the supply volume and average selling unit price of Nanjing Towngas compared with the same period last year.
In 2022, Nanjing's public operating income increased by 98% year-on-year to 7.113 billion yuan, of which gas sales revenue increased by 16.79% year-on-year to 2.879 billion yuan, accounting for 40%.
According to the 2023 annual report, Nanjing's public operating income was 4.632 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 34.88%, of which gas sales revenue also decreased by 2.55% year-on-year to 2.806 billion yuan, accounting for 61%. As for the decline in gas sales revenue, the annual report pointed out that it was mainly due to the decrease in the gas sales volume and average sales unit price of Nanjing Ganghua in the current period compared with the same period last year.
From the perspective of profitability, Nanjing Ganghua's performance last year was indeed not optimistic. In 2023, Nanjing Ganghua will achieve an operating income of 3.197 billion yuan and a net profit of only 1.3751 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.6% and 96.9% respectively, which is only one step away from a loss.
At present, Nanjing Ganghua has 1.81 million customers. Shanhai New Finance has called the Nanjing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation several times, but has not received a response as of press time.
However, according to the "E Company" of the Securities Times, people familiar with the matter revealed that the local government departments have intervened, and there may be further public information release in the future.
03
Miscopied and estimated, and the billing cycle is chaotic
In fact, before Nanjing Ganghua, Chongqing Gas, Chengdu Gas and other companies that were questioned about abnormal gas fees had been interviewed and investigated by the local market supervision department, and even the top leaders were dismissed.
On April 19, the Chongqing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice that after setting up a joint investigation team to conduct an in-depth investigation of the gas problems reported by the citizens, it was found that Chongqing Gas Group and other gas companies did have problems such as overcharging and overcharging gas fees reported by the citizens. Specifically, it involves mis-copying and illegal estimation of gas consumption, chaotic gas billing cycle, inadequate implementation of price policies, disorderly organization of meter replacement work, and inadequate internal supervision and management of enterprises.
The bureau demanded that the gas company be ordered to refund the full amount of the gas fee that had been investigated and confirmed to be overcharged. The issue of violations of laws and regulations will be transferred to the relevant departments for handling in accordance with the law, and the relevant responsible persons for the violations of laws and regulations confirmed by the investigation will be seriously held accountable.
After the incident fermented, Che Dechen's position as secretary of the party committee and general manager of Chongqing Gas Group was dismissed, and the position of chairman of the board of directors will also be removed after the general meeting of shareholders. At the same time, a working group was dispatched to Chongqing Gas Group to carry out a thorough investigation and rectification of related problems.
The next day, the Chengdu Municipal Administration for Market Regulation also issued a notice, saying that in the acceptance of complaints from citizens questioning gas problems, it was found that there were problems with gas companies. At the same time, 12 supervision groups were organized to investigate and verify the problems reported by the public through on-site inspections, test testing, data comparison, and case verification.
The Chengdu Municipal Administration for Market Regulation pointed out that at present, all complaints involving gas have been fully accepted, 1,189 have been handled, and the remaining 807 are being stepped up. According to the investigation and verification, it was found that there were four major problems in gas enterprises, such as using estimation instead of copying, illegal valuation, loopholes in the billing collection system, opaque filling process, arbitrary changes in gas billing cycles, non-standard pricing, poor service awareness, and simple working methods.
Among them, the circular focused on mentioning and naming Chengdu Gas Group, saying that a joint investigation team has been dispatched to Chengdu Gas Group and other gas companies to conduct a thorough investigation of relevant issues and carry out centralized rectification. For the gas fees that have been investigated and confirmed to be overcharged, the relevant gas companies will be instructed to refund the full amount.
It is worth mentioning that Chongqing Gas and Chengdu Gas in the whirlpool are both A-share listed companies, and both have the shadow of China Resources Gas behind them. China Resources Gas is the controlling shareholder of Chongqing Gas, the major shareholder of Chengdu Gas is Chengdu Urban Construction Investment Management Group, which holds 36.9% of the shares, and the second shareholder is Huarong Gas Investment (China) Co., Ltd., which holds 32.4% of the shares.
It can be seen that in the situation ascertained by the market supervision departments in Chongqing and Chengdu, miscopying, illegal estimation and confusion of billing cycles are common violations of the gas companies involved.
At present, it is not known whether Nanjing Ganghua also has such a problem of overcharging residents for gas as a result of such violations.
However, there is no trivial matter related to people's livelihood, and the gas problem is closely related to the daily life of residents.