Rs5b free electricity supplied to Discos staff

'198,000 workers provided more than 290m units in a year'

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Energy was informed on Tuesday that free of cost electricity worth more than Rs5 billion had been supplied to the staff of distribution companies during the last one year.

The senate panel, which met under the chairmanship of Senator Fida Muhammad, was told that 198,000 officers and employees of distribution companies had been supplied more than 290 million units of electricity during the past one year – cost of which is more than Rs5.26 billion.

The committee stressed on the need to introduce a new formula for the provision of free electricity units to the staff of Wapda.

The chairman directed the ministry to review the facility and present different options in the next meeting so that alternative facilities could be offered.

The National Transmission Dispatch Company (NTDC) also briefed the committee on the projects completed during 2010-2019 and apprised the body of the issues related to transmission.

The committee members stressed on the departments concerned to address the issues faced by the people due to load shedding.

The panel maintained that load shedding could be reduced through with the use of modern systems and electronic devices.

Senator Noman Wazir pointed out that technology used for manufacturing fans in Pakistan had been out-dated.

He said that fans assembled in the country used 130 watts while in other parts of the world they utilised 25-30 watts.

The senator emphasised that the adoption of the new technology could save thousands of megawatts of electricity, which would significantly reduce load shedding.

The committee chairman called on for formulating a comprehensive strategy to address the issue of load shedding by taking all the stakeholders onboard.

The committee was told that power tariff in Karachi were different from the rest of the country and electricity was being charged at lower rates.

The panel sought a detailed report from the concerned departments and asked reasons for low rates.

The committee also reviewed matters related to provision of health facilities to the employees of power distribution companies from Neelum-Jhelum Surcharge and Wapda hospitals and dispensaries.

The panel was told that the distribution companies owed billions of rupees in this regard.

The committee was apprised that Wapda would set up a hospital in Islamabad, while construction of a medical college in Lahore was also under consideration.

The committee members objected to the presence of a Wapda dispensary, which was built near a major hospital in Peshawar and said that it had lost its utility there.