PAC asks authorities not to deduct dam surcharge

The parliament’s top accountability arm – the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) – has instructed relevant authorities to stop deducting “illegal” Neelam-Jhelum surcharge from the bills of electricity consumers from the next month.

The PAC in its Wednesday meeting noted that the last PPP led federal government had imposed the surcharge through a notification dated January 4, 2008 to collect funds for the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Plant. The surcharge was officially valid till December 31, 2015.

The committee observed that collection of the surcharge from power consumers now was illegal as the project had already completed.

Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman Lieutenant General (retd) Muzammil Hussain also opposed collection of the surcharge from power consumers.

He told the committee that the government collected a total of Rs70billion through the surcharge.

“The estimated cost of the Neelum-Jhelum project was Rs84billion. However, the cost jumped to Rs474billion due to delay in completion of the project. The project has already produced 10.5billion units of electricity,” the Wapda chairman added.

On June 1, 2018, the PML-N government gave go-ahead to discontinue Neelum-Jhelum surcharge amounting to 15-paisa per unit starting from the commissioning date of the project. The project was opened in August 2018 but the electricity users are still paying the surcharge.

A ruling party’s member in the accountability body, Aamir Dogar, called for returning the money illegally collected in the last 5 years from power consumers on account of the surcharge.

However, PAC Chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain – who belongs to the PML-N – opposed this suggestion and said the surcharge should be discontinued from the next bill.

Later the PAC issued a statement which said the committee agreed with Wapda chairman and Auditor General of Pakistan that Neelum Jhelum surcharge is being levied in the electricity bills despite completion of the project and expiry of its notification in the year 2015.

“[The PAC] unanimously recommended that Neelum Jhelum surcharge should no more be collected from the consumers of electricity through electricity bills,” it added. The Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Plant is a 969 megawatt (MW) run-of-the-river hydroelectric project built in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.