TNEB asking money to come and inspect faulty meter
Context: This month's bill was 4x more than usual bill. I understand it was during Summer and the way the tariffs are set but we just wanted to check if it's correct. So we tried checking the meter for consumption after switching off the main. The meter was still showing 0.29 kW. So, we decided to raise a complaint to TNEB.
We did but the complaint was getting closed back to back even when no one visited. We visited the EB office directly and asked and then they tried to convince by telling us that it would definitely not be faulty meter. If you still want us to check, you have to pay 1600 Rs for us to inspect.
Is this true that we have to pay just for them to come and inspect?