Renowned mainland Chinese writer Li Yaling stated in a post on April 17th that she had been on a two-month vacation in Hainan this year while no one was at her home in Chengdu. However, the gas meter at her Chengdu residence showed usage of over 500 cubic meters. Li Yaling mentioned that this phenomenon is not isolated within the community and this news became a hot search on Baidu on April 18th.
On the same day, Li Yaling posted on her Weibo account, “I was in Hainan from January 13th to March 9th, even if the hot water boiler at home was left on (the hot water system was set to provide hot water for morning, afternoon, and evening for three and a half hours each, only for domestic hot water), it is not possible for the gas consumption to be 8 cubic meters per day without anyone using it.”
Li Yaling further added that this phenomenon is not unique to her family within the community: “After I raised the issue of the gas meter in the community owners’ group, everyone was alarmed. My neighbor A, who had been in the United States for three months, came back to find a gas bill of over 2000 RMB. Another neighbor B, who doesn’t cook much, saw a gas bill of 360 cubic meters in March, and another neighbor C compared gas bills from this year and last year, realizing a 50% increase compared to the same month last year.”
Li Yaling mentioned that she is planning to team up with neighbors who have faced similar issues to have a third-party inspection agency evaluate the gas meters.
Recently, many residents of Chengdu have reported a twofold increase in their total gas bills since the replacement of new gas meters in 2023.
Some people commented on “Wen Zheng Si Chuan” that they replaced their gas meters in September 2023, after which the costs doubled. Another citizen stated that after more than a year of replacing the gas meter, with no change in household size or cooking frequency, the gas bill increased from over 50 RMB per month to over 100 RMB.
It’s not just Chengdu, as residents in various cities in Sichuan Province such as Nanchong, Neijiang, Zigong, Mianyang, Ziyang, Deyang, and Guang’an have reported similar situations on “Wen Zheng Si Chuan.”
Prior to this, many residents of Chongqing reported significant increases in costs after switching to smart gas meters in 2023, with suspicions that the gas meter was running faster under similar usage patterns.
What added to public confusion is that Chongqing Gas, a listed company, saw its net profit increase by about 824% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in the previous year. However, the company’s annual report indicated a profit growth rate of -150.07% in the first quarter of 2023, 56% in the second quarter, and 22.24% in the third quarter, with a revenue of 7.1 billion RMB for the first three quarters, but a profit of only 270 million RMB.
In the fourth quarter, after replacing a large number of new gas meters for users, Chongqing Gas’s performance soared. The company’s performance for the fourth quarter of 2023 showed that annual revenue surpassed 10 billion RMB for the first time. Despite selling 34.96 billion cubic meters of gas last year, only a 0.69% increase from 2022, the company’s profits surged even with no increase in product sales.
In response to this, mainland Chinese self-media financial expert “Keynes” commented on April 16th, “The Chongqing Gas incident highlights a serious problem, indicating that once public resources are suspected of monopolization, problems will arise.”
A Tencent user, ekixwja, agreed, “That’s right. Once an industry is monopolized, the next step is for the authorities to start exploiting the people.”
Netizen “Telecom User 777” urged, “It’s scary, everyone should investigate.”
Another commenter, “Meng Tang,” questioned, “Investigate what? Ultimately, it will lead back to the government because the government is running out of money.”
And “Not Shaking Bilian” asked, “Chongqing Gas is controlled by the China Resources Group, do you know who owns China Resources?”