A letter dated 14th July 2012, authored by the Chairman of Lahore Electric Supply Corporation (Lesco) to his board of directors admitted that an internal audit revealed that excessive billing to cover line losses and reduce arrears was covered by excessive billing to the tune of 6.79 billion rupees.
He further acknowledged that Discos through out the country routinely engage in excessive billing (and cited the rather disturbingly high figure of 100 billion rupees) to hide their own inability to control theft, reduce arrears or line losses. Consumers, he added, are usually subjected to excessive billing during May and June (with the financial year ending in June) to show annual line losses of 19.5 percent, which is well above the regional average, instead of the prevailing 22 to 23 percent.
To further prove his point, he noted that the USAID pilot project - Blind Meter Reading in Peshawar Electric Supply Corporation (Pesco) - concluded that 10 to 12 percent excessive billing is borne by consumers. None of these revelations surprise anyone though the scale of over billing does give one pause to reflect on the necessity of power sector reforms. The government is, therefore, required to introduce reforms in this sector with a view to plugging the demand-supply gap.
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