Power ministry admits to overbilling by distribution companies. ILLUSTRATION: MOHSIN ALAM
ISLAMABAD:
The water and power ministry has earned Rs156.791 billion from consumer billing for electricity since 2008 till date.
This was stated by the water and power ministry in a written reply to the National Assembly in response to a question forwarded by lawmaker Abdul Rasheed Godil.
According to the breakup, the ministry earned Rs32.256 billion during 2008-2009, Rs33.331 billion during 2009-10, Rs34.314 billion during 2010-11, Rs41.323 billion during 2011-12 and has so far earned Rs15.567 billion during the ongoing financial year 2012-13.
Overbilling
The National Assembly was also informed that the power distribution companies overcharge consumers through excess billing from time to time. This confession was made by the water and power ministry while responding to a lawmaker’s question. The ministry stated that it is correct that occasional instances of overbilling have been noticed in certain power distribution companies. However, the ministry did not explain how this was done or who was responsible for the overbilling.
The ministry also stated that strict remedial measures have been taken by the respective companies to stop this practice of overbilling. These remedial measures include rotation of meter readers after every six months, shifting of the meter to outside of the premises to ensure correct reading of meter by the readers, replacing defective meters and other such measures.
Energy added to the national grid
The house was also informed that 2,897MW of energy from all sources have been added to the national grid since 2008. These sources include hydroelectric power generation companies, thermal power generation by power generation companies (Gencos), independent power producers (IPPs) and nuclear power generation.
According to the figures, the hydroelectric generation increased to 6,448MW from 6,376MW in 2008, Gencos production remained static at 3,580MW and IPPs’ production increased to 7,668MW from 5,178MW in 2008, while nuclear power generation increased to 615MW from 300MW during the said period.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2013.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
over billing is done by meter readers taking a bribe from someone in the neighbourhood and putting their electricity reading onto your bill. but mainly it is done by the power company itself and they just bill u according to a heavy load in summer and a lesser one in winter. one cannot check the amounts cuz they change the tariff practically daily! and whos to know how they set up the meters running... could be adjusted to go faster. all we see is the meter reading. loads of money being made of us the paying consumer!