Over-billing of electricity bills to recover appallingly high distribution losses could compel people to support Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's call for non-payment of electricity bills, a survey by Business Recorder reveals. According to president Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Kamran Murtaza, Imran Khan's act of burning Wapda electricity bills cannot be termed civil disobedience. Power consumers have already started venting their anger through protests in various parts of the country.
In a recent Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet meeting, some members of the committee severely criticised Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Mohammad Asif and Secretary Water and Power Nargis Sethi for over-billing. Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Minister for Information Technology and Chairman Privatisation Commission of Pakistan have reportedly stated "there is restlessness among the masses due to over-billing by the Ministry of Water and Power".
They were quoted as saying to Khwaja Asif "you haven't done well", and some other participants reportedly accused bureaucracy of creating problems for the government. The Cabinet took notice of over-billing and the Prime Minister constituted a committee with his Adviser on Energy Mussadiq Malik in the chair tasked to submit a report within a week to the next meeting of the Cabinet.
The government has committed to increasing electricity tariff by 0.5 percent of the GDP in the current fiscal year to minimise subsidies to the power sector. Some officials privately quipped that as the government was unable to make agreed increase in the tariff due to current political situation in the country, Ministry of Water and Power and Ministry of Finance made an effort to recover the tariff amount through over-billing.
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