Theft, over-billing, losses: Nepra proposes ban on trade unions, says it’s ‘only solution’

ISLAMABAD: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Friday proposed a ban on trade unions in Distribution Companies (Discos), maintaining that this is the “only solution” to eliminate theft, over-billing and losses.

This proposal came from Director General (Nepra) Naweed Illahi Shaikh at a meeting of a Sub-Committee of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Power. Initially, the meeting was presided over by MNA Lal Chand who left after 30 minutes to attend another meeting. Later on Engineer Sabir Hussain Kaim Khani chaired the meeting.

The main agenda of the meeting was to discuss and recommend measures to resolve the issues related to Karachi Electric (KE), Discos of Sindh and Gencos.

During a discussion on recovery, losses, load shedding and other administrative issues of Discos in Sindh, Director General (Nepra), who also hails from Sindh, proposed that the only solution to the problems of Discos is to ban trade unions. However, his remarks were not supported by the Engineer Sabir Hussain Kain Khani, who argued that as a political worker he would not support any such move.

The issue of deaths in Hesco’s jurisdiction especially in Hyderabad due to burst transformers has claimed 10 lives. Several other people also sustained injuries. Engineer Sabir Kaim Khani asked Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Hesco, to pay compensation to the deceased at par with Discos’s own staff members.

Citing a recent Chairman Nepra instruction to Mepco to compensate any fatalities in the general public due to its negligence at par with its employees, the Convener asked Director General Nepra to also implement this policy in other Discos.

Director General Nepra informed the meeting that Nepra team has already concluded its inquiry of Hyderabad incident and is about to issue show cause notice to the Discos for further proceedings.

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The Convener was of the view that Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) is responsible for accidents in Discos, as it had not allowed the companies to hire staff to meet shortages or to procure the requirement material/equipment.

However, Senior Joint Secretary, Power Division, informed the Sub Committee that all such powers of Pepco are being done away with. He further stated that Discos have been given independence in hiring of staff as per their requirement subject to approval by their respective Boards.

Recently, Nepra wrote a letter to Secretary Power Division, questioning the existence of Pepco despite clear orders of Pehawar High Court and a Cabinet decision.

Chief Executive Officer, Hesco, Rehan Hamid briefed the Sub-Committee about the issues faced by the Discos with respect to recovery which, according to him, was Rs 9 billion less than the billed amount. He said, about Rs 106 billion financial loss was incurred by the company in 12 years due to lower recovery. He said the company has no resources to invest in the system due to recovery issues, adding that local administration has been requested to take action against 20 private workshops which are illegally repairing power transformers.

CEO Hesco further stated that the company is short of 3,000 staff against a sanctioned strength of 10,000 staff.

The issue of life of power transformers also came under discussion. CEO, Sepco informed the Committee that if a transformer is underutilized its life can be 40-50 years. However, Director General Nepra said that the life of a transformer is 20 years.

The Sub-Committee directed that Nepra should submit a report to the Sub-Committee as to how many transformers in Sindh are older than 20 years.

The absence of CEO KE was also noted with concern. The Convener stated that he hasn’t seen the CEO for the last two years. Chief Operation Officer (COO) Aamir Zia briefed the Sub-Committee about steps taken by KE with regard to inspection of transformers and other measures to minimise accidents in summer.

During a discussion, CEO, Genco Holding Company Limited informed the Sub Committee that some of its plants are more efficient than private sector plants like SABA Power, Pak Gen Power, Narowal Power, Lalpir and Hubco.

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He said, it was the government’s decision to close Gencos and Nepra de-licensed a few plants.

Replying to a question raised by the Convenor, Additional Director General Nepra (tariff), Sajid Akram said that electricity is not being purchased from those plants whose generation costs are higher.

The Sub-Committee directed the CEO, CGCL to bring a comparison of generation cost of Gencos and other private sector plants and present it in the next meeting.

The meeting was also attended by Saira Bano MNA and Nuzhat Pathan MNA.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021