MOST farmers are paying four to five times as much as other Victorian businesses and households to build the state's smart-meter network.

Electricity distributors are collecting a levy - based on what is called the National Meter Identifier at each point of delivery - to cover the cost of the Victorian Government mandated smart-meter roll out.

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Households are paying an average of $68, given they only have one NMI. However, most farmers have electricity delivered to several sites on their properties, each with its own NMI and levy.

Liberal Member for Western Province, John Vogels, warned last month farmers would have to pay the smart-meter levy "four or five times over, on the house, for pumping water, for cooling the milk and for running the dairy".

At the time, Energy Minister Peter Batchelor tried to dismiss Mr Vogels' claims.

However, Liberal Energy spokesman Michael O'Brien backed Mr Vogels, warning that farmers would have to pay the levy at sites they may only use for a few days each year, such as shearing sheds.

But Mr Batchelor continued to attack the Opposition late last month issuing a press release that accused Mr O'Brien of lying in regard to farmers paying multiple smart-meter charges.

"Mr O'Brien claims a farmer with four smart meters will be paying four smart-meter charges," Mr Batchelor said in the release.

"But Powercor levies its metering charge per account, not per meter. So unless a farmer has four different electricity accounts, this will not be the case."

The Weekly Times tracked a dairy farmer with five NMIs on one account. Powercor and its rival SP AusNet, which together distribute electricity to most of regional Victoria, said both collected the levy on a per NMI basis.

The companies confirmed it did not matter how the accounts were set up, the key issue was recovering their smart-meter roll out costs.

All of Victoria's 2.4 million homes and businesses will be hit with smart-meter fees as they are rolled out during the next four years.

But rather than paying once the meter is installed, Australia's Energy Regulator has given distributors the go ahead to levy all households and businesses to recover their smart-meter installation costs over the next seven to 12 years.

Mr Batchelor said the Government had implemented the smart-meter roll out to deliver meters that could be remotely read, connected and disconnected as well as widening the choice on time-of-use tariffs.