FRIDAY NOVEMBER 25: Sales tax refund to Discos: CCoR decides to issue guidelines for uncollected power bills

ISLAMABAD: Cabinet Committee on Restructuring (CCoR) has decided to issue guideline to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to refund sales tax to the distribution companies (DISCOs) for uncollected electricity bills of more than 180 days, it was learnt.
Sources said that the CCoR also reviewed implementation of Cabinet's decisions (October 12, 2011) with regard to the Power Sector Recovery Plan 2011 and decided that the provincial governments needed to be approached for implementation of energy conservation plan envisaging two weekly holidays and early closure of shopping malls and markets.
The CCoR presided over by the Finance Minister also underlined the need to expedite the appointment of Chief Executive Officers of distribution and generation which is considered very critical for improvement of power sector performance.
According to a statement, the CCoR discussed different cabinet's decisions on governance, structural adjustments, tariff, load management and some special issues and their subsequent progress. The meeting was informed that all financial and administrative functions of PEPCO have been transferred to the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) and Central Power Purchase Agency (CPPA) on October 30, 2011 and CPPA has been fully operationalised.
However, some minor issues in dissolution of PEPCO are left, which would be resolved in a day. It was also informed that board of directors of GENCO Holding Company has been constituted and their first meeting will be held tomorrow. The committee discussed in detail the ongoing process of recruitment of CEOs for all DISCOs. It was pointed that only FESCO has short-listed the names of candidates for the said post and other DISCO has not shown any progress in this regard.
The committee decided to push the remaining DISCOs for the early completion of process for appointment of CEOs in their respective companies. The CCOR reviewed the decision on establishment of a professional joint/directorate in ministry of water and power to effectively manage policies of power sector. The finance minister asked Minister for petroleum and natural resources and Secretary Finance to conduct a separate detailed meeting to resolve all issues faced in establishing of the said directorate.
It was informed that decision of cabinet to disconnect electricity connections of over 45 days defaulters has been implemented and following guidelines have been issued to all DISCOs. The committee was informed that 34000 disconnection's have been carried out in three months and the recovery ratio from the different DISCOs has been improving gradually. In the same way every DISCO has been asked to put in a plan for reduction of their losses, comprising both technical and non technical losses (theft).
The CCOR discussed the agenda of private sector involvement in metering, billing and collection and decided to conduct a separate meeting to discuss the said proposal in detail. The CCOR also deliberated on tariff determination. The CCOR was informed that technical work on tariff determination has been completed and legal work in under process.
In the same way the mechanism for uniform tariff for whole country and simplification for tariff are under development. Some special issues of tube well subsidy in Balochistan and installation of meters on tub wells were also discussed in the meeting. In this regard, QESCO has initiated the meter installations and technical discussions regarding subsidy per tube well is underway with GOB/QESCO.
The committee discussed the load management and conversation programme in the context of closing markets at 10 pm and two holidays in a week and decided to involve the concerned department for proper implementation of said programme. Ministers for Water and Power, Privatisation, Law, Secretaries for Finance, Petroleum and Natural Resources, Water and Power, Director General NEPRA and other high officials were also present in the meeting.