Despite passage of three months since submission of numerous complaints against K-Electric's excessive billing, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) seems reluctant to make appropriate decisions. Sources said some 52 consumers approached the Authority with written complaints against the KE's excessive billing in April this year.
On May 27, the NEPRA's consumer affair director Imtiaz Baloch and deputy director Majeed Memon held hearing at the NEPRA's regional office in Bahadurabad area. Since then, no progress was made and the cases were still pending with the regulator, according to the complainants. They said as per law, NEPRA officials were bound to make decision within 15 days after the date of hearing on any issue.
They said that the regulator had established the regional complaint office in the city three years back at the requests of consumers. An assistant director of the consumer affairs and his two other subordinates were posted there to resolve the cases against the KE. The office turned dysfunctional within six months after the assistant director got himself transferred to Islamabad due to what sources said security concerns, a year ago. Since then, the NEPRA failed to fill the vacant post. Only a clerk and a gatekeeper were available at the office. They told this scribe that they just collect the complaints and send the same to the NEPRA headquarters in Islamabad.
The regional office still receives 10 to 12 cases daily but none of the officials from NEPRA is willing to come to Karachi. Lack of a functional NEPRA office in this mega city itself is a major problem for the KE consumers because their genuine complaints remain unresolved.