10,000 power thieves held across country
Power Division Secretary Rashid Langrial said the Power Division was taking action against electricity thieves on a daily basis. PHOTO: FILE
Around 10,000 people were arrested and 23,152 FIRs registered in the crackdown against electricity thieves across the country in the wake of the alarming surge in power pilferage.
Besides, a sum of Rs14.33 billion has been recovered from electricity thieves.
Power Division Secretary Rashid Langrial said despite having a share of 75% in the theft quantum in the three provinces, only 725 people were rounded up in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
He added that the Power Division was taking action against electricity thieves on a daily basis.
According to the Power Division secretary, the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) had recovered around Rs3.85 billion from power pilferers.
He continued that 2,961 people had been arrested for stealing electricity and 9,564 FIRs registered in connection with power theft in the jurisdiction of LESCO.
Langrial maintained that Rs2.69 billion and Rs2.42 billion had been recovered from power thieves by the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) and Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO), respectively.
The Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) imposed fines worth over Rs89.5 million on power pilferers.
A total of 287 FIRs were registered for power theft and 233 electricity thieves arrested in the jurisdiction of the IESCO.
During the month of September, 77,998 meters were checked in IESCO operation circles.
Read also: Crackdown on power pilferers yields 137 arrests
A total of 1,330 consumers were issued detection bills over slow supply of direct electricity and tampered meters.
A spokesperson for the IESCO pledged to make the campaign launched by the government against power theft 100% successful.
During the operation, IESCO detection teams have the full support of the district administration and police, the spokesperson added.
At the start of September, an operation against power pilferers had kicked off in line with the orders of the energy ministry wherein cases were registered in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Multan against former members of the assembly, politicians, influential figures as well as others, and detection bills worth millions of rupees served for stealing millions of units.
A detection bill is served for illegal abstraction of electricity or consumption of energy; direct hooking; and on account of slowness in accordance with the provisions of Section 26-A of the Electricity Act, 1920.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had recently granted Pakistan permission to extend the payment of electricity bills for consumers using up to 200 units over three months.
Sources told The Express Tribune that the IMF had conditionally approved the gradual payment of August’s electricity bills over three months for consumers not eligible for subsidies and using up to 200 monthly units.
Lifeline consumers and those within this consumption bracket who are protected from price increases will not be eligible for this temporary relief.
As a result, only around four million consumers, approximately 10% of the total, will be eligible for this assistance. The government had initially sought permission to stagger bills for consumers using up to 400 monthly units, which would have benefited 32 million consumers or 81% of the total, but this request was not accepted by the IMF.