TESCO suspends power supply to 36 marble factories

Factories accuse power company of mismanaging electricity bills

SHABQADAR: Power supply has been suspended at 36 marble and stone-crushing factories by Tribal Areas Electricity Supply Company (Tesco) after they failed to pay their electricity bills.

An official from Tesco confirmed that power supply to factories was suspended. “At least 13 factories were declared [power] defaulters on August 1,” he told The Express Tribune on Friday.



Warsak power station supplies power to 26 marble and 10 stone-crushing factories at Parchavi Michni, Peshawar that border Mohmand Agency. These factories had been paying a lump-sum electricity bill between Rs70,000 and Rs100,000 every month to Tesco.

However, at least 13 of these marble factories defaulted on payments ranging from Rs400,000 to Rs4 million.



Under an agreement between National Accountability Bureau and Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), Tesco suspended power supply till payment of bills. The official added there were at least 64 marble and 30 stone-crushing factories in the entire agency which were paying bills under the lump-sum formula.

One of the marble factory owners in Parchavi said Tesco suspended power supply to all factories instead of the factories that defaulted. He added this shows Tesco’s intention to thwart the local industry.

He said the factories were paying bills equivalent to electricity consumption of 24 hours even though the area faces 12 hours of load-shedding.

The factory owner said there is uncertainty regarding the payment of bills as Tesco is urging factories to pay bills in installments while NAB wants factory owners to pay bills directly to them.



At least 1,000 labourers are directly affected by the suspension of power supply.

“The government should give incentives to marble factories to develop the marble city which is only five kilometres from the area,” the factory owner said. “On the contrary, the government has suspended power supply over the failure to pay previously unpaid bills which have been mostly paid in cash to Tesco officials but have been added to the bills.”

Mohmand Agency has substantial marble resources and locals have established marble factories. The government has been working on the marble city for several years. However, it has still not been completed even after repeated claims from the government that work will commence soon on the initiative.

However, the political administration has been receiving considerable funds to develop the marble city. Similarly, factory owners and locals are accusing Tesco officials of widespread mismanagement in electricity bills.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2016.