The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW&SB) is facing worst financial crunch as its supply of electricity that was cut on October 21, has not been restored yet while pending salaries of over 11000 employees have added to its constraint. Official sources told Business Recorder on Monday that the board is badly hit by over employment as some 6,000 staffs have been recruited through political influence forcing the KW&SB to crash in deep financial crisis.
To a question, they said board has failed to recover dues of Rs 5 billion pending against 25 different federal and provincial departments and has no sufficient funds to clear the dues of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) and termed it as a major factor behind its inability to pay employees.
'If board clears its outstanding dues of about Rs 4 billion, the KESC will restore its electricity because we have already paid some Rs 100 million in this connection but the supply was still disconnected,' they informed. Despite efforts made by the KW&SB to ensure the KESC that its dues could only be cleared, if board recovers its outstanding bills from the government departments.
The KESC has cut its electricity, they said and feared that it would create water scarcity in the metropolis. The officials further said that the adjuster of the government of Pakistan has also issued notices to all the ministries for paying the dues of KW&SB, otherwise it would be deducted at source.
But all went fruitless, they added. Meanwhile the KB&SB has recently moved a letter to the federal government has suggested to pay the KESC dues on the KW&SB's account. They said that the Ministry of Water and Power in this connection has constituted a committee headed by the Chairman, Wapda Shakeel Durrani with 12 other members to sort out the issue of payment of the arrears to KESC by strategic consumers.
They also said that committee has recommended in its meeting that the amounts already billed by the KW&SB to the federal and provincial government departments, should be deducted at source both by the adjuster of the federal and provincial governments.
The committee has also suggested that the KW&SB should negotiate fresh rates with the both governments departments and entries such as Pakistan Steel Mill, Cantonment Board, PIA, CM, Pakistan Railways and others for future billings so that no dispute arises for recovery of charges on regular basis. Official sources further maintained that concerned authority had taken serious notice of the KW&SB report, issued directives to all defaulter departments to settle the board's claims soon but no progress has yet been made in this connection.
It may be recalled that earlier, the former Minister for Finance, Dr Salman Shah had directed all defaulter government departments, corporations and other agencies to pay at least 50 percent of the outstanding dues of KW&SB and should reconcile their remaining dues for further payment. However, despite this decision by the former Finance Minister, not a single defaulter department has paid the required 50 percent of overall outstanding even after passing of several months, they said.
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