The country's power sector receivables have soared to Rs 726.19 billion as of December 2016 as compared to Rs 684.06 billion on June 30, 2016, showing an increase of 6 per cent in just six months. According to official documents, Discos' collection has registered a 9.5 percent decline to 486.26 billion as of December 31, 2016 against billing of Rs 543.70 billion during the first six months of current fiscal year 2016-17.
The volume of receivables against provinces has increased to 197.19 billion as of December 31, 2016 as compared to Rs 169.09 billion on June 30, 2016. The amount of receivables against Punjab increased to Rs 2.43 billion as compared to Rs 1.84 billion whereas outstanding receivables against KPK government were 20.21 billion by end December as compared to Rs 19.41 billion on June 30, 2016. This includes Rs 18.6 billion assessed for KPK consumers for the period September 5, 2018 to September 15, 2010 on account of tariff differential after the withdrawal of KPK petition from PHC. The assessed amount has not been passed on to consumers. The payment of these receivables has been linked with the mark-up on NHP arrears payable to KPK government as proposed by the province. Likewise the volume of receivables against Sindh was Rs 70.91 billion as of December 31, 2016 compared to Rs 73.44 billion on June 30, 2016. However, the Economic Co-ordination Committee of the Cabinet recently approved write-off of Rs 50 billion to Sindh government with the special interest of incumbent Secretary Water and Power who also hails from Sindh. The amount of receivables against Balochistan was increased to Rs 5.53 billion as of December 31, 2016 against Rs 4.94 billion on June 30, 2016.
The documents reveal an increase in AJ&K receivables to Rs 72.94 billion as compared to Rs 65.47 billion of which the share of federal government was Rs 0.43 billion because of continuous non-payment by the Azad Kashmir government.
The amount of receivables against the private sector increased to Rs 494.2 billion from Rs 468.7 billion during this period as Discos have failed to expedite recovery from the private sector despite strong position of the Ministry of Water and Power. The volume of billing against the private sector was Rs 464.28 billion from July 1, 2016 till end December whereas collection stood at Rs 438.97 billion. Karachi Electric (KE) which is about to be handed over to M/s Shanghai Electric, a Chinese company, from Abraaj Group of the UAE, has dues amounting to Rs 52.78 billion against 650MW electricity being taken from the national grid. The volume of receivables against federal government has increased to Rs 7.71 billion as of December 31, 2016 against Rs 4 billion on June 30, 2016. Federal governments comprises of federal government departments, local bodies under federal government, autonomous bodies under federal government and water and power sector.