Circular debt mounts to Rs795 billion

Pesco among DISCOs facing most losses, PAC subcommittee told

ISLAMABAD: Authorities on Monday told a parliamentary panel that circular debt has mounted to Rs795 billion but the power distribution companies’ (DISCOs) efforts to curb electricity losses are paying off.

“Among four DISCOs – Kesco, Hesco, Pesco and Sepco – Pesco faces the most losses while Sepco faces the least, 13%, loss. However, we will bring an end to electricity theft,” Secretary Energy Irfan Elahi informed a subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting chaired by Naveed Qamar.

“Subsidy on power will be part of the upcoming budget,” he added. Meeting of the subcommittee was looking at audit paras for 2016-17 of the Ministry of Energy.

Pesco officials told the panel that the most cases of power theft surfaced from Khyber Pakhtunkwa’s (K-P) Charsadda and Mardan districts.  They said FIRs are registered against those involved in illegal use of electricity. Secretary power said electricity theft in Punjab is committed mostly through tampering of metres while in Sindh, K-P and in Balochistan direct connections (Kundas) are mostly used.

Circular debt to be eliminated by end 2020, PM told

The panel was told that Pesco, in order to hide line losses, issued Rs700 million bills to consumers whose lines had long been permanently disconnected. The committee sought a report on the scandal and also ordered authorities to investigate into the case and take actions against those responsible.

The subcommittee also sought a report from Lesco with regard to actions taken in a case of Rs380 million overbilling to industrial consumers. Audit officials told the subcommittee that Pesco had to incur a loss of Rs721million due to wrong use of an incentive package announced during 2010 floods. However, Pesco officials contradicted the claim and said the company only faced a loss of 38 million.

They said some Pesco officials, responsible for the loss, were still working but others had retired now. The committee also summoned investigation officer of the case in the next meeting.