If you are based in Delhi and have a MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) landline phone, then you should pay attention to his article. Today I got my landline phone bill and was taking a look at it, wanted to check the payment due. My eyes went straight to the amount mentioned in red. To me it was obvious that amount printed in red would be the total due for the month. Wrong! Amount in red was the total due after the due date while the total due for the current month was in ordinary black.

Why does MTNL want to highlight the amount due after the due date? Does it mean that people would make a mistake and pay more instead of the actual? Although amount which is over paid would reflect in your next bill as a credit but just imagine this, lakhs of consumer pay millions of rupees in advance to MTNL, which will obviously look good on their balance sheet while making them money in interest as well.

This is definitely a fraud tactic being played by MTNL or the people working there are too dumb to realize this. I hope people are more cautious while reading their bill and hopefully take this up with their local MTNL office.