Wapda is angry with its consumers in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), and rightly so. According to a report appearing in this paper the other day, only three percent of the Fata consumers pay their bills for about 450 MW of electricity supplied per day. This has been going on for so long that the arrears, with an average monthly increase of one billion rupees, now stand at a whopping Rs 63 billion.
Wapda demands for payment are met with stiff resistance. This has prompted the Principal Staff Officer to Wapda Chairman to describe, in a recent letter to the Ministry of Interior, the local people as 'terrorists' and to ask for law enforcement agencies' protection for the utility's employees and installations. Says the letter entitled 'Resentment of Taliban in NW Agency'.
"it is unjustified to ask the people of the tribal areas as to why terrorists should expect better service unless they are prepared to pay their utility bills which are already heavily subsidised." The language of the letter may be excessive but its logic makes eminent sense.
Understandably, the government had decided to provide electricity to the tribal areas on heavily subsidised rates as part of its efforts to lift them out of backwardness. It is hard to find fault with that motive, but where the government erred was in ignoring the fact that an overwhelming majority of the consumers were not paying their dues at all.
Since failure to pay entailed no adverse consequences, people have now gotten used to free use of electricity and tend to resort to violence when asked to pay or face disconnection. The issue needs to be resolved through negotiations with the local leaders.
There are at least two important reasons why people must pay for the service, which is already heavily subsidised. One, of course, is that it will help Wapda reduce some of its losses, and the other is that people tend to attach greater value to things they pay for than those that they get for free, and, therefore, may also make a more sparing use of electricity, curtailing some of the pressure on our crisis-ridden power sector.
For now the government needs to pay Wapda for the losses it has been suffering on account of the situation in Fata. It needs to be remembered that these losses get transferred to law-abiding citizens in the settled areas in the shape of ever increasing bills. In fact, the 'heavy' subsidies for Fata also are indirectly borne by them.
It is only fair that the same people do not face the brunt of high power costs over and over again. As it is, the government has substantial funds at its disposal to spend specifically on the development of the tribal areas. It should pay Wapda out of those funds. Also relevant in the context is a scheme for the establishment of economic opportunity zones in the tribal areas that are to produce goods for tariff-free export to western markets.
Which of course would increase energy consumption manifold. What is to become of the subsidy system then? It is about time that the people in Fata learned to pay their bills like their compatriots in the rest of society, and gradually are also weaned off subsidised power supplies.