Federal Secretary Power Division Irfan Ali has said that the government has generated Rs 229 billion additional revenue from electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) from October 2018 to October 2019.

While briefing the subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee, which met here under the chairmanship of Senator Shibli Faraz, Irfan Ali said that as a result of improvement in recovery mechanism, the government over the period has made Rs 229 billion additional recoveries from various consumers of which Rs 118 billion additional revenue has been generated by increasing power tariff and Rs 111 billion by capacity building of the power distribution companies.

The official of the Power Division briefed the committee regarding overall losses in all DISCOs and exploring the cheaper sources of power generation including renewable energy under Power Division in the light of discussion made in the previous meeting. The committee was informed that there was no load-shedding in areas where people are paying bills.

The sub-committee directed Power Division, Ministry of Energy, to conduct evaluation of all electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) at the earliest.

The secretary Power Division informed the panel that from October 2018 to October 2019, the government registered over 52,000 first information reports (FIRs) against power thieves and 7,300 people were arrested on account of electricity theft.

Member committee Malik Aamir Dogar while expressing serious concerns over escalating power bills with each passing month said that the government instead of recovering Rs 650 billion outstanding bills against power defaulters is busy overburdening the people who are already paying the bills.

Another committee member Iqbal Mohammad Ali raised the issue of recent hike in power tariff for the consumers of the K-Electric and said that now the K-Electric has started sending up to half million rupees power bills to common people. He added that power load shedding in Karachi has also resumed and seemingly there is no one to take action against the concerned quarters responsible for serving the people.

Responding to a question regarding shifting of agricultural tube wells in Balochistan on solar system, he said that for the purpose the government has invited a Saudi company to install three solar based power plants each with 50 megawatts (MW) capacity in three selected districts of the province. He said that once the solar power plants are installed, the government will link them with national grid to supply power to all the tube wells in Balochistan, but added that the solar-based electricity is expensive which will not address the problems of the farmers of Balochistan as per their aspirations. He said that 29,000 tube wells in Balochistan are registered while total number of the tube wells has reached 45,000.

The convener of the committee said that the electricity load shedding issue should be resolved in Balochistan province on priority basis.

The committee was informed that a comprehensive feasibility report would be shared with the committee in last week of this month about the electricity situation in Balochistan.

Senator Ahmed Khan said that the people of Balochistan are facing water issue due to electricity load shedding, adding that a large number of people have converted their power systems to solar panels.

The officials of Power Division said that K-Electric has improved a lot. However, the committee decided to invite officials of K-Electric in the PAC sub-committee meeting.