Power consumers across the country default Rs 227 billion of various power distribution companies as a result of the failure of Power Division, Ministry of Energy. Senior officials of the Power Division, Ministry of Energy, while briefing the Public Accounts Committee held here on Tuesday with Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah in the chair said Peshawar Electricity Supply Company (PESCO), Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company (HESCO) and Gujranwala Electricity Supply Company (GEPCO) top on account of line losses.
The meeting reviewed and discussed audit paras of the Power Division, Ministry of Energy, of year 2016-17. The officials said PESCO line losses are 21 percent, Sukkur Electric Power Company (SEPCO) 19 percent, HESCO 18.5 percent, and Quetta Electric Supply Company (QESCO) 17.4 percent. The officials explained that one percent line losses mean Rs 12 billion financial losses per year.
Briefing the participants, the auditor general of Pakistan told that multibillion rupees of DISCOs' bills have been outstanding against various power consumers since long, while the Power Division, Ministry of Energy, in collaboration with all the system managed to recover only 5 percent of line losses.
The audit officials said Rs 96.9 billion default is on the system of PESCO, Rs 80.3 billion on QESCO, Rs 32 billion on Federal Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), Rs 8.43 billion on MEPCO, Rs 6.16 billion on HESCO, and Rs 2.68 billion default is on the system of SEPCO.
The PAC chairman and other members expressed serious concern over huge outstanding amount against various power consumers and growing line losses.
Syed Naveed Qammar said the government neither has privatized the power distribution companies nor brought any improvement in the bill collection mechanism and as a result the phenomenon of circular debt has created serious issue once again.
He admitted that on this account both Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz governments have failed to bring improvements, adding that this requires serious efforts on the part of every stakeholder.
Senator Azam Swati said entire world has not only improved its power production and distribution systems, but have fixed the problems while in Pakistan different parties are busy levelling allegations against each other instead of focus the resolution of the problems.
Member National Assembly Mian Abdul Mannan responding to Senator Azam Swati said if Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is coming into power, the party will fix the system within 100 days as party's chairman claimed a few days ago.
Senior officials of the Ministry of Energy, Power Division, said outstanding bills against power consumers are the main issue creating the circular debt. They said that the ministry is trying its best to recover outstanding power bills.
Giving the reasons behind low recovery, the ministry officials told that provincial governments, district administration as well as police are not cooperating with the DISCOs in recovery of power bills drive as the DISCOs have no force to compel the consumers to pay the bills.
Committee member Azra Afzal said it is the responsibility of DISCOs, and not the government, to recover the overdue bills. Responding to a query of Naveed Qammar, officials of the Power Division, Ministry of Energy, said installation of smart metering system across the country with a cost of Rs 700 million has been abandoned. The committee also snubbed the officials of the Power Division over presenting false figures of lines losses.
Mian Abdul Mannan said power distribution companies have wasted Rs 500 billion on account of power losses within past five years. The major defaulters are provincial governments of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and KP in addition to over a dozen federal institutions. Those which have gone default on payment of bills include the Prime Minister House, CDA and some key ministries.
A sum of Rs 96.89 billion is lying outstanding against PESCO consumers. The consumers of QESCO come second in the line of defaulters as outstanding electricity bills dues against them have surpassed Rs 80 billion. Likewise the consumers of TESCO, which supplies electricity to FATA, have to pay Rs 32 billion on account of outstanding dues. A sum of Rs 6.61 billion has to be recovered from HESCO consumers.
Only ray of hope has gleamed from LESCO which has made its recovery campaign a success story and only Rs 800 million are left outstanding against its consumers. The number of defaulters with MEPCO, Multan region, has increased manifold and a whopping amount of Rs 8.50 billion stands stuck up with them.
The Sukkur Electric Power Company has improved its recovery campaign, reducing the number of defaulters about next to nil. It has to recover outstanding dues of Rs 4.5 million presently. The IESCO has also worked wonders in making recoveries of outstanding dues from its defaulters which stand curtailed to Rs 8.3 million now.