Billions of rupees losses by DISCOs revealed in PEPCO's review meeting

LAHORE: Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) in its detailed review meeting regarding performance of all Distribution Companies (DISCOs) for the month of December 2017 found out that the performance of DISCOs, as far as AT&C losses were concerned, was very serious and alarming.

PEPCO spokesman said here Tuesday that worst performers on the basis of financial loss calculated by PITC (Power Information Technology Company) through AT&C (Aggregate Technical & Commercial) loss for the month of December 2017 were PESCO (Peshawar) and QESCO (Quetta) among all the ten DISCOs.

It was estimated that PESCO under CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Shabbir Ahmed Gilani had incurred a loss of Rs 5.828 billion, while QESCO under CEO Rehmatullah Baloch had incurred a loss of Rs 5.829 billion during December 2017, he maintained.

In PESCO area, he mentioned, the highest loss was incurred by Bannu Circle under SE (Superintending Engineer) Noor Ullah Khan incurring loss of Rs 1.641 billion in the month under review, while the worst Divisions were Karak and Bannu-I under XENs Fazal-e-Rabbi and Zaman Khan with losses of Rs 230 million and Rs 158 million respectively.

At the sub-divisional level, the worst were Mattani sub-division under SDO Fazal-e-Malik with a loss of Rs 133.12 million, Doaba under SDO (Sub-Divisional Officer) Sajid Bahadur with a loss of Rs 87.28 million and Bannu Rural-I under SDO Muhammad Atif and Murad Ali with Rs 64.26 million loss, he added.

In QESCO, he said, the highest loss was incurred by Makran CIR Circle under SE Iqbal Breach with a loss of Rs 456.69 million. The worst divisions were Sibbi and Turbat under XENs Azizullah Rind and Bangul Khan Marri with respective losses of Rs 254.6 million and Rs 250.34 million.

At the sub-divisional level, the worst were Sui sub-division under SDO Abdul Hameed Bugti with a loss of Rs 87 million, Lehri under SDO Hussain Bukhsh with a loss of Rs 71.56 million and Harnai under SDO Daud Khan with Rs 60.9 million.

The spokesman said in Punjab, LESCO (Lahore) performance was worst with a total loss of Rs 2.136 billion during December 2017, under CEO Wajid Kazmi. Its worst Circle was Kasur under SEs Mushtaq Ali Qamar and Rustam Ali with a loss of Rs 364.569 million. The worst two divisions were Kasur Rural and Kot Radha Kishan under XENs Muhammad Ashfaq and Aman Ullah Sheikh with loss of Rs 95.3 million and Rs 34.3 million respectively. At the lowest tier, sub-division Rural Area Kasur under Acting SDO Amjad Hussain, Elah Abad West under Acting SDO Mr. Abdul Rashid Watto and Hallah under acting SDO Muhammad Hamid Raza incurred loss of Rs 30.5 million, Rs 23.45 million and Rs 16.55 million respectively.

The worst performing CEOs and SEs in each DISCO had been issued very strong letters of explanation with direction to respond within two days, he mentioned. Similarly CEOs of all DISCOs had been directed to take strong disciplinary actions against respective subordinates as well as undertake whatever it entailed under rules to arrest this unsustainable quantum of loss and addition to the circular debt.

In the performance review meeting, he said, the progress on implementation of development schemes under Phase-I of Sustainable Development Goals was satisfactory. Despite very larger number of schemes in MEPCO and FESCO i.e. 3646 and 1595 schemes respectively both had achieved the targeted timelines.

All DISCOs except PESCO, SEPCO (Sukkur) and QESCO had achieved the targets for picture-based meter reading for the domestic and commercial consumers. In the drive for acquiring mobile phone numbers of all consumers MEPCO (Multan), IESCO (Islamabad) and FESCO (Faisalabad) were the top three DISCOs with more than 90 percent consumer mobile numbers in their database. Performance of HESCO (Hyderabad) and SEPCO was not encouraging with less than 24 percent consumer mobile numbers acquired till end December 2017. PESCO and QESCO were the worst since both could not acquire the mobile numbers of even two percent of their total consumers.

The drive to obtain mobile numbers was started so that consumers could be sent real time SMS regarding meter reading, status of fault at their feeder etc., he said and asserted that FESCO was the best among all DISCOs regarding no delay in implementation of its billing schedule closely followed by MEPCO. PESCO and QESCO were the worst with maximum delays of 11 days and seven days in one of their batches respectively.

In terms of accuracy of meter reading, FESCO and MEPCO were the best with mistakes of only 0.96 percent and 5.94 percent respectively followed by GEPCO (Gujranwala) and HESCO. Worst performers were PESCO and LESCO with mistakes as high as 29.42 percent and 26.6 percent respectively.