A business owner has lodged a police report in dispute of Tenaga Nasional Berhad’s (TNB) claims that he had tampered with the electricity meter at his shop since 2014.

“They (TNB) gave me proof that my meter has no problem in 2015, but now they claim that my meter has been tampered with since 2014,” said Soh Jo Yee, who runs a car wash at Jinjang Utara, at a press conference at Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng’s service centre in Bandar Manjalara, Kepong today.

Soh said he had received a notice from TNB in June that they had inspected the meter at his shop and discovered that it had been tampered with since 2014.

After trying to deal with this issue unsuccessfully last month, on Thursday, a TNB officer came to his shop on Thursday and said his electricity would be cut off unless he paid RM6,300 for the incurred costs of electricity theft since the meter was allegedly tampered with since 2014.

Concerned about his business, he said he reached an agreement with the officer to pay the amount as long as they did not cut his electricity for too long.

However, he later remembered that in 2015, he had requested TNB to check on the shop’s meter and they had declared it as functioning well.

When he tried to talk to TNB about this, they told him that perhaps that officer had been inexperienced.

Soh said that is an unacceptable reason, and sought the help of Lim, who advised him to cancel the cheque he had issued to TNB.

Not only that, Soh said he only started renting the shop lot in July 2015, and the lot was empty since 2013 before that.

He also claimed that his is not the only case of this nature, as he met many others with similar complaints when he was at the TNB headquarters in Jinjang to lodge his complaint.

“The same thing is happening in (other places in) Jinjang, Kepong, Sungai Buloh, Cheras and Aman Puri,” Soh said.

Lim said he would be forwarding all relevant documents including the police report to the TNB headquarters in Jinjang on Monday.

“I ask them to look at this matter seriously. He (Soh) is not an isolated case, there are many more similar complaints.

“I’m very disappointed with TNB because all this while, I thought TNB was a more systematic GLC (government-linked company) but from this complaint, we can see TNB is just another kelam-kabut (disorganised) company,” Lim said.

Soh said that he hoped his story will help prevent people from falling victim to a similar incident in the future.