The Sindh government may approach the Supreme Court (SC) to resolve long-pending dispute of the provincial authorities with the Hyderabad Electric Supply Corporation (Hesco) regarding outstanding dues, which has reached at around Rs 45 billion, it is learnt.
According to sources, the Sindh government and the Hesco were at loggerheads over the issue of long-pending outstanding dues since year 2004 and the amount had been reached at Rs 40.84 billion. However, no serious efforts were made to resolve the matter amicably, they said.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) had also appointed an adjuster, Rana Asad Ameen to listen views of both the parties but the authorities of the Corporation and provincial government were not ready to cooperate with the Ministry, they added. They said that the Finance Department of the Sindh government had long been requesting the Center to intervene into the matter and clear the outstanding dues, adding that due to apathy of authorities the amount had increased manifold.
The utility had issued power bills of Rs 8 billion to Sindh government's departments in year 2005-6 alone, which the provincial authorities were terming inflated and based on average billings and refused to pay such huge amount, they said. The amount has been further increased with the passage of time and electricity consumption of provincial government's departments and the late surcharges were being applied on all the bills that in result had reached over Rs 40 billion.
Although, the provincial authorities had presented the details of inflated bills, however, the corporation management was insisting that records with it had been destroyed during riots on Benazir Bhutto's assassination, they said. The Hesco had issued bills of Rs 100 million to water supply and sewerage projects at Matli and Hali Road.
Similarly, it dispatched two electricity bills of Rs 100 million to the Cattle Colony of Hyderabad (having two connections) although, the cattle colony has yet to be developed, the sources said. Furthermore, they said that Sindh government had almost prepared the case and it was expected that the apex court would be approached within days in order to resolve this serious issue.